Map Projections: The meaning and examples

Map projection is a technique of flattening the spherical surface of the earth into a 2D map surface. Since the earth is spherical, it is impossible to flatten it out perfectly without causing some distortions to either its shape, distance, size or direction.

Depending on the purpose of the map, some distortions are acceptable and others are not. Therefore, various map projections have been developed in order to preserve some properties of the spherical earth, at the expense of other properties.

Today there are more than one thousand map projections. The most common ones include the Mercator projection, gall-peters projection, Robinson projection, Waterman projections, Goode-Homolosine etc.