There’s a strange dichotomy at work in a country when people stop using maps in favor of GPS and start putting them on the walls as artwork. While most early maps were works of art and good cartographers to this day attempt to make their maps as beautiful of possible, the relegation of the World Wall Map to nothing more than a design accessory is troubling.

Maps are meant to be used, not just admired. Every map was designed to serve a practical function. Topographical maps were meant to be used by campers, backpackers and others who care about the physical dimensions of the space around them. Good road maps help those on long trips make their way from point A to point B with stop offs at interesting towns and landmarks along the way.

Academia and research still rely heavily on actual maps to teach the next generation of students about everything from history to astronomy. Some of the maps may now be computer generated, but that means that they may also be three dimensional and interactive, which makes them into even more effective tools for learning. As long as there are researchers and scientists who need to chart their findings in geographical space, there will be a need for practical maps.

Practical Maps is a post from: Silence Aloud

No related posts.

Last December, my son and his family traveled from Oregon to visit us in Phoenix, Arizona. Since my husband and I live in a very small condominium, we put them up at a very luxurious hotel that Arizona offers. They came at a great time, the weather was perfect, so we decided to do some hiking close to home. The only time in Arizona that’s bad to hike is in the summer, but that doesn’t seem to stop newbies from trying, even though the temperatures range from 90 degrees in the morning to 112 degrees mid-afternoon; we’re always hearing reports on the news that someone had to be rescued off a hiking trail due to heat exhaustion.

But, even in the winter time, a hiker needs to be cautious, we always carry plenty of water with us, actually we purchased these backpacks called Camelbak that holds about a quart of water, which you can sip through a tube that comes around the back and over the shoulder. We also bring sunblock, sunglasses and a hat. We made sure that my son and his family was equipped just like we were, we didn’t want to end up on the 5 o’clock news as having to be rescued.

We took them to Squaw Peak Trail, it’s located in north Phoenix. While we were hiking, we saw plenty of people jogging up to the top and back down again! This really amazed my son, as he and his family could barely make the trip at a leisurely pace. My 4 year old grandson, who has been raised to be a man and do things on his own steam, actually hiked most of Squaw Peak all on his own, then Grandpa, feeling sorry for the tyke, gave him a piggy back ride. Once on top of Squaw Peak, there is a great pay-off for all the hard work, a spectacular view of the valley.

This was my sons first visit to Arizona, and he and his family really loved it. They might even consider moving down here, but we told them to come visit us in mid-summer, then they get a true taste of desert living.

Hiking in Arizona is a post from: Silence Aloud

Related posts:

1. Haze Legacy in Arizona
2. Phoenix is Training for Spring
3. Howarth Park in Santa Rosa is a Great Destination Point for the Entire Family

It is physically impossible to represent a three dimensional object in exact proportion and shape on a two dimensional surface. This is the reason why cartography is so impressive and extensive. It is an exact science of trying to fit the surface of a three dimensional object onto a two dimensional object without losing the details such as shape and size. The world maps that most of us grew up with are called Mercator projection maps, and were originally made so as to make it easier on sailors, giving them straight lines to follow. The problem is that using this map Greenland looks like it might reasonably be as large as China, which is fairly fallacious, as well as being fallacious in other parts of the world. The Mercator map stretches out the poles as well as the parts near the poles and shrinks things at the equator. It also fails to place things in the proper geological location.

Many have tried to replace this map with the Gall-Peters map, claiming it to the more accurate, which it is to a degree. This map is made so that all distances are the same. One inch on the map of Europe is the same as on inch on the map of South Africa. While this may help out in some respects it fails to address the fact that it is still a distortion of the true shape of the earth and since this map has been introduced, there have been variations and other attempts to correct the map and make it more accurate. Part of the problem however is that it is impossible to turn a globe into a flat square. Given that longitude and latitude are circular, it would stand to reason that in all reality you can not spread out the thin points that longitude come out to and expect the geographical implications to remain the same. Even a map that does not use a strictly square basis but rather a rounded one like the Robinson projection map still suffers from distortion. If you really want to see the way the Earth looks, buy a globe. Walmart as well as many other toy stores usually sell them.

The Most Accurate Map Is A Globe is a post from: Silence Aloud

Related posts:

1. Practical Maps