Maps & Cartography

Every flat map of a round planet is wrong in some specific way, and cartography is largely the study of choosing which error to accept. This category covers projections and what each one distorts, the coordinate grid and where its lines were fixed, and the conventions, contours, scale bars, compass roses, that let a map be read precisely. It reaches back to early mapmaking and forward to satellite positioning. The explanations name the trade-off in each case, which is the single most useful idea in the whole subject.