"In cartography, a map projection is any of a broad set of transformations employed to represent the curved two-dimensional surface of a globe on a plane."
The effect of different map projections on the shapes and sizes of features on a map.
Cartography: Study of maps and their creation, interpretation, and use.
Map Projections: A way to represent the curved surface of the Earth on a flat surface.
Distortion: The result of trying to flatten a round object onto a flat surface.
Geographic Coordinate System: The reference system used to locate positions on the Earth's surface.
Geodesy: The scientific study of the shape and size of the Earth.
Spherical Coordinates: Three coordinates (latitude, longitude, and altitude) that describe a position on a sphere.
Cylindrical Projections: Map projections that unroll the surface of the Earth onto a cylinder.
Conic Projections: Map projections that unroll the surface of the Earth onto a cone.
Azimuthal Projections: Map projections that project the Earth's surface onto a flat plane.
Mercator Projection: A cylindrical map projection that preserves straight lines and directions but distorts areas near the poles.
Lambert Conformal Conic Projection: A conic map projection that preserves area, shape, and angles.
Robinson Projection: A compromise projection that attempts to balance distortion of shape, area, and distance.
Great Circle Routes: The shortest distance between two points on the surface of the Earth.
Stereographic Projection: A map projection that projects points on a sphere onto a plane.
Eckert IV Projection: A compromise projection that attempts to balance distortion of shape and size.
Homolosine Projection: A projection that preserves shape and area.
Conformal Projection: A map projection that preserves angles and shapes.
Equal-Area Projection: A map projection that preserves area.
Goode Homolosine Projection: A clipped and rearranged map of the world.
Polyconic Projection: A type of conic projection that is constructed from a series of tangent cones.
Transverse Mercator Projection: A cylindrical projection that is used for mapping large tracts of land along a meridian.
Van der Grinten Projection: A non-conformal map projection that shows the entire world at once.
Winkel Tripel Projection: A compromise projection that attempts to balance distortion of shape, area, and distance.
Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area Projection: A projection that preserves shape and area from a specific point on the globe.
Apian Globe Projection: A non-standard projection that retains distances between locations, but severely distorts their shapes.
Sinusoidal Projection: A projection that preserves the meridians as straight lines.
Hammer Projection: An equal-area, pole-centric projection.
Orthographic Projection: A map projection that projects from the center of the Earth onto a plane tangent to the surface.
Albers Equal-Area Conic Projection: A conic projection that preserves shape and area by using two standard parallels.
Stereographic Projection: A map projection that projects points on a sphere onto a plane.
Mercator 1569 Projection: A historical cylindrical projection that was used for navigation in the 16th century.
Bonne Projection: A conic projection that has the standard parallel as a circle of latitude.
Craster Parabolic Projection: An azimuthal projection that is equal-area, conformal, space-filling, and centered on the North Pole.
Winkel I Tripel Projection: Another version of the Winkel Tripel Projection that balances distortion of shape, area, and distance slightly better.
Equal Earth Projection: An equal-area projection that balances shape distoration much better than other equal-area projections like sinusoidal and Hammer projections.
Azimuthal Equidistant Projection: This is a map projection where distances are preserved from a central point, but direction and shape are significantly distorted.
Mercator Projection: This is a cylindrical map projection that preserves angles and straight lines, but significantly distorts area and distance.
Robinson Projection: This is a modified cylindrical projection designed to minimize distortions in both shape and area. The projection was created by Arthur H. Robinson in 1963.
Conic Projection: A conic projection is a map projection that results from projecting a globe onto a cone. This projection provides accurate distance and shape near the convergence line, but the farther you move from it, the greater the distortion.
Stereographic Projection: In a stereographic projection, the points on a sphere are projected onto a plane that is tangent to the sphere at a specific point.
Transverse Mercator: Transverse Mercator projection is a cylindrical projection used primarily for topographical maps. The cylinders axis is aligned with the surface of the earth instead of perpendicular to it.
Gnomonic Projection: A gnomonic projection is a type of azimuthal projection that projects great circles as straight lines.
Lambert Conformal Conic Projection: The Lambert conformal conic projection is a conic projection commonly used for maps of hemispheres. It preserves shapes but distorts area.
Area distortion: An area on a map may be distorted if it's not a straight line.
Distance distortion: Maps may be distorted in distance, and it's not always possible to know the exact distance between two points.
Shape distortion: This is when the shape of a location on a map is distorted, making it less accurate.
Directional distortion: It refers to the distortion of direction, meaning that the direction between two points on a map is not the same as it is in reality.
Angular distortion: This is what happens when the angles on a map are distorted.
Scale distortion: Scale distortion is when the distance between two points on a map is different from what they are in reality.
Perceptual distortion: This kind of distortion is caused by the way our minds perceive shapes and sizes.
Projection distortion: It occurs when the process of turning a 3D object into a 2D object causes distorting.
"In a map projection, coordinates, often expressed as latitude and longitude, of locations from the surface of the globe are transformed to coordinates on a plane."
"Projection is a necessary step in creating a two-dimensional map and is one of the essential elements of cartography."
"All projections of a sphere on a plane necessarily distort the surface in some way and to some extent."
"Different map projections exist in order to preserve some properties of the sphere-like body at the expense of other properties."
"The study of map projections is primarily about the characterization of their distortions."
"There is no limit to the number of possible map projections."
"Projections are considered in several fields of pure mathematics, including differential geometry, projective geometry, and manifolds."
"Rather, any mathematical function that transforms coordinates from the curved surface distinctly and smoothly to the plane is a projection."
"The Earth and other large celestial bodies are generally better modeled as oblate spheroids."
"The surfaces of planetary bodies can be mapped even if they are too irregular to be modeled well with a sphere or ellipsoid."
"The most well-known map projection is the Mercator projection."
"This map projection has the property of being conformal."
"However, it has been criticized throughout the 20th century for enlarging regions further from the equator."
"Equal-area projections such as the Sinusoidal projection and the Gall–Peters projection show the correct sizes of countries relative to each other."
"The National Geographic Society and most atlases favor map projections that compromise between area and angular distortion."
"such as the Robinson projection"
"the Winkel tripel projection."
"Therefore, more generally, a map projection is any method of flattening a continuous curved surface onto a plane."
"Few projections in practical use are perspective."