Areas near the poles are most distorted on maps, as the projection of the Earth's curved surface onto a flat map causes significant distortion in these regions. This distortion is known as polar distortion and results in inaccuracies in size and shape of landmasses near the poles.
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Topographic maps show the most detail, as they represent the physical features of an area such as elevation, terrain, and land formations. These maps are useful for outdoor activities like hiking and camping, providing a comprehensive view of the landscape.
the sizes become distorted because of the round curves from a globe. if you use a flat map, same rules apply.
The size of continents and countries are scaled down, so they get scaled down. If you're looking at cartographic map, the size/scale of each country will depend by that country's population, GDP, etc. as well, on flat maps, the most northern and the most southern parts of a map would be distorted. Greenland and Antarctica on a flat map look HUGE. while in comparison to a globe, it would look much smaller on said globe. This is because a map is usally square, or rectangular, and the countries need to be "stretched" to fill the missing space.
Different map projections are used to represent the Earth's curved surface on a flat map, with each projection emphasizing certain aspects like accuracy in area, distance, or direction. The choice of map projection depends on the purpose of the map and what aspects of the Earth's surface need to be preserved or distorted in order to facilitate interpretation.
The homolosine map projection is a type of pseudocylindrical map projection that seeks to reduce distortion in both area and shape across the map. It achieves this by combining multiple projection techniques in different regions of the map. The result is a map that accurately represents the entire globe with minimal distortions.