Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ing: “Time is money.” And for that reason many business travelers (if they have a choice)
prefer the shortest route to get them where they're going. Airline executives know this.
Accordingly, marketing strategies sometimes involve making maps that present the air-
line's route system in the best light possible. And doing that, of course, involves choosing
the best possible projection.
Wading through lies in search of the truth
The maps in both Figure 4-2 and 4-3 are lying. But the map in Figure 4-3 provides the most accurate
— that is, most globe-like — perspective regarding the shortest route between New York and Singa-
pore. I'd really love to be able to prove that to you right here on the page of this topic, but therein
lies the problem — literally. This page is flat. To find out which route is shortest, you need a map that
really looks like the world itself. That is, you need a globe.
Because a globe doesn't come with this topic, you have to come to grips with the four ways in which
maps can lie: distance, direction, shape, and area.
Most flat maps lie with respect to at least two characteristics, and some lie in all four aspects.
In modest detail, here is the lowdown on exactly how and why these fibs occur.
Distance
Theoretically, transferring a curved Earth to a flat map involves selectively stretching some parts of
Earth's surface more than others. For example, imagine two cities are 1,000 miles apart and the land
between them gets stretched a great deal during the map-making process. Now imagine that else-
where on Earth, two other cities are also 1,000 miles apart, but the land between them gets stretched
just a little to make the very same map. On the resulting maps, the distance of 1,000 miles isn't por-
trayed the same.
Direction
The situation with direction is pretty much the same as with distance. By stretching a globe to make a
flat map, true directions become incorrect. If some parts of the globe are stretched more than others,
