Map Projections

Map projections are a way to take the round earth and place it on a flat surface. A map projection is literally as it sounds a projection of the earth. In the article on projections it says try to imagine taking an orange peel and trying to flatten it. The peel would break and crack because it is not used to this type of pressure. It says it is the same for the surface of the earth. This is why there are map projections, and cartographers use mathematical formulas to make these projections. Many projections will have distortions depending on the type, and they normally occur the farther from the center you get.

Some map projections are just better versions of the other, like the Mercator and the Peters maps. Arno Peters a German historian and journalist said that his projection would better display third world countries unlike that of the Mercator projection. He said his would be a less racist view of the world, and it would be made fairly. As the famous cartographer Arthur Robinson said though, his map looks like a long wet pair of underwear hanging out to dry in the Arctic Circle. To me the closer to the top you get the more scrunched it becomes, and towards the bottom the land begins to become stretched. I personally prefer the Robinson projection; I feel it gives a clean and more accurate image of the earth.

As said in the article How Maps Can Deceive Us, countries would use bold letters, and bright colors to attract people to certain areas. The bold letters would be used to evoke a since of emotion and colors can do this as well. Like in the Cloropleth map strong colors are used to show varying intensities in a phenomenon. Under Nazi rule the Germans would increase the size of the country and territorial dominance to increase the moral and pride of the regime. From a similar but different standpoint, the same happened in the Cold War. The United States, would oversize the country of Russia to bring forth the “Communism Contagion”.