Everything about World Map totally explained
A
world map is a
map of the surface of the
Earth, which may be made using any of a number of different
map projections.
Maps of the world are often either 'political' or 'physical'. The most important purpose of the political map is to show territorial borders; the purpose of the physical map is to show features of
geography such as mountains, soil type or land use. Geological maps show not only the physical surface, but characteristics of the underlying rock,
fault lines, and subsurface structures.
Projections
Maps that depict the surface of the Earth use a
projection, a way of translating the three-dimensional real surface of the
geoid to a two-dimensional picture. Perhaps the best-known world-map projection is the
Mercator Projection, originally designed as a form of
nautical chart.
Airplane pilots use aeronautical charts based on a
Lambert conformal conic projection, in which a cone is laid over the section of the earth to be mapped. The cone intersects the sphere (the earth) at one or two parallels which are chosen as standard lines. This allows the pilots to plot a
great circle (shortest distance) route approximation on a flat, two-dimensional chart.
Variations
Different from the world map used in
Western Hemisphere, in
East Asian countries, such as
China,
Japan and
Korea, along with in
Australia and
New Zealand, another map is used which places American continents on the right, Europe and Africa on the left, and Asia-Pacific countries roughly on the centre.
Since Africa-centred maps give a rather strong distortion of
North America, there are also maps that put America in the centre.
In
Australia,
reversed maps, with the south (and therefore Australia) at the top, are available, mainly for the tourist industry.
Gallery
Image:Cahill_Butterfly_Map.jpg | B.J.S. Cahill Butterfly Map, 1909, from 1919 pamphlet
Image:Waterman_Butterfly_Map_1996.jpg | Waterman Butterfly Map, 1996
Image:Dymaxion map unfolded.png | Dymaxion projection
Image:Elevation.jpg | Elevation map
Image:World Map flat Mercator.png | Mercator projection
Image:World map.png | Topographical map of the world
Image:Reverse projection.png | A reversed map, challenging the tradition of north as "up"
Image:BlankMap-World.png | A blank political map of the world
Image:Worldmaphedo.jpg | World map according to Posidonius (150-130 B.C.)
Image:World Map 1689.JPG | A World map produced in Amsterdam 1689
Image:Political_world3.jpg | A simple political map of the World as of 2003
Image:AYool topography 15min.png | Present day Earth altimetry and bathymetry (Mollweide projection)
Further Information
Get more info on 'World Map'.
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