Lab 5 Map Projection

Conformal Maps

This figure shows the two different conformal projections, Gall Stereographic and Stereographic. The distance between Washington, D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan are 7,151.14901 miles and 10,223.114052 miles respectively. 

Equidistant Maps

 This figure shows the two different Equidistant projections, equidistant cylindrical and equidistant conic . The distance between Washington, D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan are 5,061.578567 miles and 6,972.480093  miles respectively.
                                                                     Equal Area Maps

This figure shows the two different equal area projections, Hammer Aitoff and Equal area cylindrical  . The distance between Washington, D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan are 8,329.886632 miles and 10,050.793381  miles respectively.

None of the projections is prefect for every task. There are different pros and cons for using different projections, which depends on the intention of making that maps, so we have to think carefully before choosing the projections for our maps. It could be very different and data could be wrong if we used the inappropriate projection for a specific task. There are different distortions of maps. The graticule could be a guide to distortion.

We have to consider what matters the most for us in order to get the right projection. We have to think about some questions like is "the distances accurate?", "is it easy to obtain the shortest path between two points?", "are the directions correctly oriented?", " is the shape of the land right?", " are the ratios preserved?" etc...

In this task, we have two equal area, two equidistant and two conformal map projection. They all have their own kind of distortion of the presentation of the Earth, they are named and classified based on the properties that they contain! Conformal have the correct shape and preserve angular relationships but not distance. , it is useful for finding the size and the shape of specific area. For example, environmental scientist might use it for checking the size of the ice caps or land area .  Equal Area has preserved the area, this type of map would be useful for observing the changing of the size of an area or feature. Also, equidistant projection only preserve preserve distances along the parallels of different places on the map, distance over a short area .


Overall, there is no best map for all purposes since none of the projection can show equal area, distance, and shape all at once. But projection is really important since we can present people the wrong impression and wrong information when we use the wrong projection and there is any distortion that affect the observation or the main point of creating that map.