3º British: Changing the maps

We have learnt in class that exist several ways to represent the Earth in a flat format. They are known as planimetric maps.

The most common one is the cylindrical model, and all of us in the Western world are used to see the Earth in this way:

However, have you ever thought how the world map is for a Japanese person? Well, the map changes a little bit because Japan is in the middle:

And what would happen if we change the map proportions? In this brief extract from the "The West Wing TV serie" (3:49 minutes, from season 2 – episode 16), it is explained in a high-level way the differences between the Gall-Peters projection and the Mercator projection. These differences were the reason of important disputes in the past…

Have a look to the video and after that please answer the following questions (When you finish them, you have to send it by email to: blogeducativo08@gmail.com):

-         In what century did Mercator create his first map?

-         What problems or defects does Mercator’s map have?

-         In what century did Peters create his projection?

-         What was Peters expecialized in?

-         What arguments are used in the video to defend the Peters projection?

-         What problems or defects does Peters’ map have?

-         What projection is used by Google Maps? Why?

-         Opinion: what do you think about this maps manipualtion? Why?

If you need more help, you can also watch this video about Map projection and GIS (only 1 minute)