Читать книгу Geography For Dummies - Jerry T. Mitchell - Страница 68

The business of making map projections requires a somewhat deviant personality. Cartographers know that maps that lie flat lie. They know for certain before they begin a project that it’s absolutely impossible to create a flat map that looks exactly like the world. Does that deter them? Nope. No way.

Cartographers have developed literally dozens of different kinds of map projections over the years. Each one contains some degree of misinformation. If you’re like most people you’ve given little or no thought to map projections nor have you suffered from not doing so. Or have you? (For another perspective on why this matters, see the sidebar “Applied Geography: Putting your best projection forward.”)

Understanding the facts about maps can’t help but make you a better-informed person. Maps are a common means of communicating information. They pop up in internet articles, magazines, books, TV programs, and elsewhere. Because mainstream media is in the business of providing factual information, people may understandably assume that the maps they’re looking at are accurate. But maps that lie flat lie, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it — except maybe understand the nature of the distortions and appreciate that flat maps should be interpreted with a certain amount of caution.

Cartographers know projections lie, so their objective is to get as close to reality as possible. But enough of this blabber about maps that lie, it’s time to consider a practical example that involves some honest-to-goodness maps. Or rather, some not-so-honest-to-goodness maps.