ABSTRACT
Cartographically it is a challenge to find how best to reproduce part or all of a spherical surface on the flat surface of a map. A useful analogy is to consider the problem
of flattening a piece of orange peel. Either bearings and therefore shape, or distance and therefore scale, or both, will be distorted on a flat map, but the distortions are slight for the map of a country of moderate size and tolerable for an area the size of the USA or Australia. In Figure 1.4 selected parts of the world are compared on different projections. Most of the maps of the world used in this book give priority to correctness of area rather than of shape.
