A cartogram is a diagram which uses the form of a map to present numeric information while maintaining some degree of geographic accuracy. For example, a population cartogram illustrates the relative sizes of the populations of the countries of the world by scaling the area of each country in proportion to its population; the shape and relative location of each country is retained to as large an extent as possible, but ...

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Cartography - History
Cartography - Technological changes
Cartography - Map types Cartography - Naming conventions

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A map is a simplified depiction of a space, a navigational aid which highlights relations between objects within that space. Most usually a map is a two-dimensional, geometrically accurate representation of a three-dimensional space. The science and art of map-making is cartography. Map - Introduction. Map-making dates back to the Stone Age and appears to predate written language by several millennia. One of the oldest surviving maps is painted on a wall of the Catal Huyuk settlement in south-central ...

Including:

Map - Introduction Map - Orientation of maps Map - Scale and accuracy Map - World maps and projections Map - Electronic maps

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Mapmaking involves advanced skills and attitudes, particularly the use of symbols to represent certain geographic phenomena, as well as the ability to visualize the world in an abstract and scaled down form. Maps have been an integral part of the human story for long time (maybe 8,000 years - nobody knows exactly, but longer than a written words). From cave/wall partings, ancient maps of Babylon and Greek philosophers, through the Age of Exploration, and on into the 21st century, people have created and used maps as the essential tool ...

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Cartography, Cartography - History, Cartography - Technological changes, Cartography - Map types, Cartography - Naming conventions

Read more here: » Cartography: Encyclopedia II - Cartography - History

Map-making dates back to the Stone Age and appears to predate written language by several millennia. One of the oldest surviving maps is painted on a wall of the Catal Huyuk settlement in south-central Anatolia (now Turkey); it dates from about 6200 BC. [Harvey 2000, p. 142]. While we tend to think of maps today as products of a rationalistic, scientific world-view, maps also have a mythic quality. Pre-modern maps, and mapping traditions outside the Western tradition, often merge geography with non-scientific cosmography, showing the ...

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Map, Map - Introduction, Map - Orientation of maps, Map - Scale and accuracy, Map - World maps and projections, Map - Electronic maps

Read more here: » Map: Encyclopedia II - Map - Introduction

Conventionally, on most geometrically accurate maps text is upright when the map is oriented with the north up, hence north is identified with the top of a sheet. Maps that don't put north at the top: Polar maps Dymaxion maps Some rectangular maps produced in Australia show the south pole at the top. To someone used to seeing the map the other way around, this map may appear to be "upside down". These are primarily intended as novelty and tourist maps. Other modern maps put south on top, general ...

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Map, Map - Introduction, Map - Orientation of maps, Map - Scale and accuracy, Map - World maps and projections, Map - Electronic maps

Read more here: » Map: Encyclopedia II - Map - Orientation of maps

Many but not all maps are drawn to a scale, allowing the reader to infer the actual sizes of, and distances between, depicted objects. A larger scale shows more detail, thus requiring a larger map to show the same area. For example, maps designed for the hiker are often scaled at the ratio 1:24,000, meaning that 1 of any unit of measurement on the map corresponds to 24,000 of that same unit in reality; while maps designed for the motorist are often scaled at 1:250,000. Maps which use some quality other than physical area to dete ...

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Map, Map - Introduction, Map - Orientation of maps, Map - Scale and accuracy, Map - World maps and projections, Map - Electronic maps

Read more here: » Map: Encyclopedia II - Map - Scale and accuracy

Maps of the world or large areas are often either 'political' or 'physical'. The most important purpose of the political map is to show territorial borders; the purpose of the physical is to show features of geography such as mountains, soil type or land use. Geological maps show not only the physical surface, but characteristics of the underlying rock, fault lines, and subsurface structures. Maps that depict the surface of the Earth also use a projection, a way of translating the three-dimensional real surface of the geoid to a two-dimensional picture. Perhaps the best-kn ...

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Map, Map - Introduction, Map - Orientation of maps, Map - Scale and accuracy, Map - World maps and projections, Map - Electronic maps

Read more here: » Map: Encyclopedia II - Map - World maps and projections

In understanding basic maps, the field of cartography can be divided into two general categories: general cartography and thematic cartography. General cartography involves those maps that are constructed for a general audience and thus contain a variety of features. General maps exhibit many reference and location systems and often are produced in a series. For example the 1:24,000 scale topographic maps of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) are a standard as compared to the 1:50,000 scale Canadian maps. A topographic map is primarily concerned with the topography of a place, and is typically different from other maps by it ...

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Cartography, Cartography - History, Cartography - Technological changes, Cartography - Map types, Cartography - Naming conventions

Read more here: » Cartography: Encyclopedia II - Cartography - Map types

There are several ways to name the places on a map. Early explorers named them in several ways — after themselves, people in their homeland, and the ruler(s) of their countries. Features were also named by appearance, local climate, incidents that happened in the vicinity, and location. Many places along the coast of Brazil were named by Portuguese explorers in the early 1500s after the saint of the day of discovery in the Catholic calendar of saints (so that the detailed timetable of their expeditions can of ...

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Cartography, Cartography - History, Cartography - Technological changes, Cartography - Map types, Cartography - Naming conventions

Read more here: » Cartography: Encyclopedia II - Cartography - Naming conventions

From the last quarter of the 20th century, the indispensable tool of the cartographer has been the computer. Much of cartography, especially at the data-gathering survey level, has been subsumed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Even when GIS is not involved, most cartographers now use a variety of computer graphics programs to generate new maps. Interactive, computerised maps are commercially available, allowing users to zoom in or zoom out (respectively meaning to increase or decrease the scale), sometimes by replacing ...

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Map, Map - Introduction, Map - Orientation of maps, Map - Scale and accuracy, Map - World maps and projections, Map - Electronic maps

Read more here: » Map: Encyclopedia II - Map - Electronic maps