For most people, when they think of a map, they think of maybe a couple of different kinds. But the truth is, there are more types of maps than you can possibly imagine. We're going to take a look at just a few of them and the kind of information you'll get from them. We're probably all familiar with the common map of our world. This map shows all the countries, where they are located, their shape, size and even some major cities within each country if the map is large enough. Of course there are also breakdowns of our world map into continents to get a more detailed view. We are also familiar with the individual road maps that we use for traveling across country or even from one city to another. These maps are probably the most commonly used maps in the United States, especially by people who do a lot of vacationing by car. But maps don't end with these common types. For example, there are climate maps available for just about every area in the world. A climate map shows general information about climate and precipitation of an area. Mapmakers usually use different colors to illustrate whether an area is dry, like in the desert, or very wet as in a rain forest region. There are also what are called economic or resource maps. These maps show the natural resources most common to an area and also the relative economic status of an area, whether it is an affluent area or one that is relatively poor. These are also color coded to signify economic classes such as blue for income between $40,000 and $50,000 per family. Another kind of map that is very important for politicians is the political map. These maps show a particular region's political affiliation, whether democrat, republican or independent. These maps usually come into play during election time. Then there are maps that are called physical maps. These maps don't necessarily point out the country or state name but what kind of terrain one might find in this area. For example, a physical map of the United States when viewed would show a very mountainous area out west and flat lands to the East. These maps also show where lakes and rivers are located. Green is usually used to show lower elevations and orange and brown are usually used to show the higher elevations. But maps don't just end with those related to our world land masses. There are kinds of maps available today that years ago, especially before the age of the Internet, we didn't have. Probably the most popular of these is what is called the site map. Site maps are maps of a particular web site. What a site map does is simply list every single page that is contained in a web site. These site maps are really more for search engines than for real people as it helps the search engines rank the sites better by being able to access all the content on the site without missing anything. These are just a few examples of the different kinds of maps that we has at our disposal. Yes, a map isn't just a map any more. |
