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"To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 MAP LEGENDS AND SCALES

• Maps are small models of earth's surface
 

• SO - distances and sizes have to be proprtional to the real thing

Map Scale

• Is the relationship between the distances on the map and the real world.

• this scale may be found on the legend. If there isn’t one, it may be in the margin, or just about anywhere.

Scale is usually represented as

a ratio

Such as:

1:36 000

• the text uses metric units, but if you buy topo maps locally, to use hiking in the mountains, you will be using English system units.

• in which case, the "1" in the scale means "one inch", more often than not.

Map Scales

• The scale to which a map is drawn represents the ratio of the distance between two points on the earth and the distance between the two corresponding points on the map.

Types of Scale

Verbal Scale
 
 

When a scale is expressed in words, for example one inch represents one mile, it is referred to as a Verbal Scale.

Visual Scale

• Almost every map has a bar scale, or a Visual Scale, that can be used for measuring. It shows graphically the relationship between map distance and ground distance.

Representative Fraction
 

• The scale of a map, expressed as a numerical ratio of map distance to ground distance, is called a Representative Fraction (or RF). It is usually written as 1/50,000 or 1:50,000, meaning that one unit of measurement on the map represents 50,000 of the same units on the ground.

UPDATED: 02/17/03