Eli's Mapping

Every geographer knows that a map is made of many important parts. Each part tells about something different. It goes beyond giving just direction like north, south, east and west. There are the imaginary lines called longitude that go around the earth north south. There are also imaginary lines that go east west and they are called latitude. The equator is zero degrees latitude and the prime meridian is zero degrees longitude. Longitude and latitude cut up the world into what looks like little squares. Hemispheres also divide up a map with the northern hemishphere, southern hemisphere, eastern hemisphere and western hemisphere. Time zones split the world into different times according to when it is daylight and night time. It can be night in one part and day in another part at the same time. Maps are not as big as the real world so they need a scale. A scale helps you to understand the distances. For example one centimetre on a scale can equal one kilometer on the ground. Finally there is the legend. There are different kinds which give information about what the map is about. For example shading can show the number of hurricanes if it is a map about weather. So whether you are lost in Burnaby or in the jungles of Peru it is really important to read a map because you never know when google earth and your internet might not be working.