Map projections are an underestimated field in cartography. Their importance is seen when trying to get certain aspects on to your map. Whether it is area, distance or angles (conformal), map projections allow for the researcher to be as accurate as possible when assessing locations relative to others. This project taught me that preserving one attribute on a map projection might distort others.
The equidistant maps look particularly interesting. I love their shapes. But beyond aesthetics, they preserve distance. However you can see in the Equidistant conic map projection that it is not representative of how the earth actually looks. The Sinusoidal map looks like the earth, but it made the equator bulge out.
Equal area map projections, like Bonne and Mollweide, preserve the area of the landmasses. Although the Bonne is heart-shaped, all of the continents look like they normally do. Mollweide looks like a regular map found in a school book. That would be the map I would use if i needed to present a the most normal map in a report or any type of presentation.
Conformal map projections preserve the right angles. In both the Stereographic and Mercater projections, Antarctica is very stretched and distorted and the rest of the world looks about normal. The Mercater map shows the observer how the lines of latitude cease to be above a certain longitude which accounts for the elongating distortion.
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