THE WORLD IS FLAT: NOT! Cool New World Maps for Kids

Note: creased cover

Every flat map of the round world is what's called a projection. That's because you're taking something round (the Earth's surface) and projecting it onto a flat surface (a piece of paper).

Different Types of Projections

• There are many different projections, each with strengths and weaknesses.
• The maps in this book are called orthographic projections.
  • Strength: They show the world the same way it is seen from space.
  • Weaknesses:
    • They only show half the world.
    • There is a lot of distortion near the edges of an orthographic map.

Latitude and Longitude

• People use latitude and longitude coordinates to identify particular spots on the world.
• There are two ways of expressing latitude and longitude:
  1. Degrees, minutes, and seconds
  2. Decimal degrees

Center Point of the Orthographic Maps

The orthographic maps in this book are centered on the following point:
21° 43'N / 70° 49'E or 21.7667 / 70.4833

You can input these coordinates into Google Earth or other mapping programs to get the same view of the Earth as shown in this book.