Maps & Contemporary Tools Quiz

The word cartography has two roots. “Cart” means “pertaining to maps” and “graph” means “write.” Thus, cartography is mapmaking (or map-writing).

Maps are two dimensional and, therefore, are distorted representations of the earth, a three-dimensional object.

Gerardus Mercator drew his map in 1569.

Longitude lines are evenly spaced on a Mercator map, but latitude lines spread out as one approaches the north and south poles.

While the continents are close to actual size, the oceans are split up and distorted, making sea navigation difficult.

A Robinson projection looks like a combination of a Mercator map and Goode’s homosoline.

Mecca is southeast of Chicago, and when looking at a map, it appears that southeast is the most direct route. But that map is distorted, and in reality, when looking at a globe, northeast is the most direct route.

A topographic map shows large-scale detail. Elevation is usually represented by contour lines.

Parallels are lines of latitude and run east—west. The international date line runs north—south.

Meridians or lines of longitude run north—south. They are numbered east—west but are used to measure distance north—south.

The larger the scale, the more close-up the view of the map.

China has one time zone.

The sun moves from east to west, and therefore, it is “earlier” on the west coast than it is on the east coast, in this case, by two time zones or two hours.

The Mediterranean Sea separates Europe from Africa.

There is no West Asia, though Central Asia is pretty far west.

“Site” characteristics are unique characteristics, and latitude and longitude coordinates are unique to each location.

The township and range system, formally known as the public land survey system and occasionally known as the rectangular survey system, was created in 1785.

This definition fits a geographic information system.

Global positioning systems are used in automobiles, ships, planes, and cellular phones as navigation tools.

Remote sensing involves the scanning of the earth by satellite or high-flying aircraft.