![]() ![]() The National Atlas article Map Projections: From Spherical Earth to Flat Map is the best place to start learning about the trade-offs among the various projections. Of the official National Atlas of the US, Unfortunately, the projection that best achieves this - the Mercator - has become one of the most popular for world maps, even though it grossly distorts area, shape, and distance! ![]() As a guide for sailing a ship, direction is extremely important, for example. Therefore, the "best" projection will vary, depending upon which of these characteristics is most important. ![]() Any effort to preserve one of these four properties will require a loss in one or more of the others. What kind of map, people want to know, will eliminate distortion?Ä«ecause the earth is nearly spherical in shape, a globe is the only way to represent it without distorting shape, area, distance, and/or direction. As geographers - especially geographers who travel with a giant globe - we are often asked this question. ![]()
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