12. Map projection: Explain the four features of a map that can be distorted.

Maps can be extremely accurate and detailed, but to be accurate or inaccurate, you must have four important distortions to be accurate as well. Not all aspects of the map can be accurate so the maker of the map must decide what four distortions are more important than others. The maker of the map may choose to have a lot of distortion from one of the distortions and have very little in the other three, or he or she will spread the wealth from that one distortion to the other three so that each of the four distortions will have the same amount of distortion. The first distortion is called “conformality,” and it’s main purpose is to have all the shapes of the places on the map to be accurate. The second distortion is known as “distance,” and focussed on measuring distances accurately. The third distortion is called “area/equivalence,” and is supposed to make sure that the areas represented on the map are proportional to their area on the earth. The four and final distortion is known as “direction,” it’s soul purpose is to make sure that the angles of direction are portrayed accurately. All four of these distortions are very important in the world of map making, and are used frequently to make maps as accurate as they can be.