For the Bonnie Map, the Distance Between Washington D.C. and Kabul
was about 6,774.958205 miles
For the Goode's Homolisine Map, the Distance Between Washington D.C. and Kabul
was about 9,974.699803 miles
The
Kinds of Map Projections that are seen above consist of three
different kinds:Conformal, Equidistant, and Equal Area projections.
There are Positive and Negative things about each kind of projection.
There is no projection that will be able to preserve every element
that the real world. Therefore, there are different projections that
serve for different things.
One
of the first Map projections that was shown above is a Conformal
Projection. Above, you see a Mercator and a Conformal Conic
projection. A Mercator projection has straight verticle meridians and
this is good because it allows direct bearing measurements. One other
good thing is that at any point on the map the scale is the same in
all directions and they tend to preserve shapes in small areas.
Moreover, conformal maps preserve the angle details as you convert
from three dimensional to two dimensional. Relative angles are
correct at each point of the map in a conformal projection on a
conformal Projection, directions are locally true, but are distorted
with distance, so in a way a conformal projection can preserve
direction from a single point, it is really hard to preserve
direction on any kind of projection. Conformal maps are best at
measuring angles, looking for accurate local directions, or when you
try to represent contour lines. The best uses for this kind of
projection are for navigational reasons and also for meteorological
reasons.
Equidistant
projections are those that maintain a more accurate distance in a map
from the center of the projection or also along given lines in the
projection. I found it interesting that it is used for seismic
mapping because that kind of mapping would be useful and interesting
here in California due to our prevalent plate tectonic movement along
the ring of fire and the higher possibilities of different size
earthquakes.The projections used above were an Azimuthal and
Sinuosidal, What I noticed in these two different projections was
that when i was measuring the distance in miles in Arcgis, the
distance for both were really closely similar. Which proves that
within two points the distance between those two points is more
accurate. In the first two projections the conformal conic and the
mercator both gave different distances between the two same points
and were not even close but thousand of miles of a difference.
An
Equal-Area projection preserves the area and the areas anywhere
mapped on a plane, maps show accurate sizes. This kind of map can
show true direction from the center point of the map. The two
projections above are Bonnel and Goode Homolosine. The scale on an
equal-area projection is constant along the central meridian. The
scale on the east and west is also constant throughout the map. For
this kind of map the true distance within two points are measured on
the meridian and are measured at two points in two parallel lines
that intersect the meridian. Maps that preserve area such as these
two projections, show the area of something on a map proportional to
that something on the real world. This kind of map can be useful when
looking for the density of population in different areas as well as
how much land is being used by different factors in an area, or
figuring out different things about an area, there are a lot of
different categories one can map about. The cool thing is that along
the central meridian there is no distortion. One negative things is
that an equal-area projection could never be conformal.
In
order to look for a good projection that you might need you need to
know what you are looking for especially looking for a good
projection that minimizes distortion in the location that you are
interested in. The different projections try to help keep a balance
distortion of the shape of a map as well as the area of a map, to try
and get us to use the different projections for specific uses. There
is no single map that will have both Equal-Area and be conformal
ect.. therefore, we use these projections to best figure out things
about the world while working with a two dimensional map. Although,
there are distortions to every kind of projection they are all
extremely important and useful.
