How the round world gets flattened onto paper.
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.
3 quizzes in Maps & Cartography
Ptolemy, al-Idrisi, portolan charts and the draughtsman who straightened the Underground.
Ptolemy's Geographia, written in the second century, was influential chiefly because it did…
Reading maps properly, and knowing what each one gets wrong.
The Mercator projection is well known for distorting what?
Grid references, bearings, declination and what the spacing of contour lines is telling you.
On a hillside, what does the spacing between contour lines tell you?
3 published quizzes in this subject, 30 questions in total. Every one is researched, written and checked by hand.
The mix here is 2 medium and 1 hard. Difficulty is about how obscure the answers are, not how fast you have to be — there is no timer on any quiz.
About 7 minutes on average, ranging from 7 to 8. Playing every maps & cartography quiz would take roughly 22 minutes.
"Projections & Coordinates" is the gentlest way in — 10 questions, about 7 minutes, rated medium.
No. Every quiz is free and playable straight away. An optional free account only saves your scores across devices.
Yes — every question has a short explanation of why the right answer is right, shown the moment you answer, whether you got it or not.