Map Reading

A bird's-eye view is a view of something from high above, as if you’re a bird flying over it and looking down. It’s used to make maps because it lets you see more of a place than you can see when you’re standing on the ground. People who make maps are called cartographers. Early maps were not as accurate as current maps because cartographers didn’t have as much technology and didn’t know as much about the world.For example, Ptolemy was a famous cartographer, geographer and mathematician in the second century CE. He thought that the distance around the Earth was smaller than it really is. He also didn’t know that the continents of North America and South America or the Pacific Ocean even existed. So on his map, these two continents and an ocean are completely missing. Asia and Europe are also drawn much closer together than they really are. Why didn’t Ptolemy include all of Earth’s continents on his map?

• because not all the continents existed when he made his map

• because Europe and Asia were closer together when he made his map

• because North America was part of Europe when he made his map

• because Ptolemy did not know all of the continents that existed

Political maps are maps that show the boundaries—also called borders—of countries, states and counties. Borders can change over time for different reasons. For example, when one country takes over another, the border of the first country expands to include the second. A country can also trade, buy or sell land to another country and gain new territories after a war. When borders change, political maps change, too. The map of the US that we’re used to seeing didn’t always look this way. It has changed many times since the year 1776, as borders changed and grew, and as we created new states. Which of these events most likely changed the borders of political maps of the US?

• the US buying Alaska from Russia in 1867

• a large earthquake hitting California in 1906

• 2.6 million Americans losing their jobs in 2008

• many immigrants coming to New York City in the in the late 1800s

Washington, DC, is the capital of the United States. It’s the center of the federal government. The federal government makes laws that affect all of the states. Each state also has its own capital. The state capital is the center of the state’s government. A state government has power over just the state. The state capital is not always the city in the state that has the most people. The capital of New York is Albany, and the capital of California is Sacramento. In a state, the city with the most people in it might not be the capital?

• True

• False

Map scale is the comparison between distance on a map and distance in real life. On some maps, you can find the scale inside the legend.Some maps will write out the map distance and the real distance. Others will just show you the line and the real distance. When you're figuring out how far apart places are, you'll use a ruler to measure the map distance yourself.On this map, what is the scale?

• 1 mile = 100 minutes

• 1 inch = 200 miles

• 1 inch = 100 miles

• 1 inch = 1 mile

Physical maps show the natural features and land forms of a place like oceans, mountains, plains, deserts and forests. They often use colors and shading to do this. Land form maps assign different colors to different land forms. Mountains will be one color, plains a different color and plateaus a third color. Other physical maps use color to show the elevation. Elevation is how high the land is above sea level. There can be very high and very low elevations in the same country, or even the same state. The highest point in Washington state is Mount Rainier at 14,410 feet, and the lowest point is the Pacific Ocean at sea level.Which state shown on this map has the lowest elevation?

• KS

• LA

• NV

• IA

A compass rose is a symbol that shows the four cardinal directions. The cardinal directions are the four main directions: north, south, east and west. North is up, south is down, east is right, and west is left. On the compass rose, the cardinal directions go north, east, south and west in a clockwise direction. You can remember this order with this phrase: Never Eat Soggy Waffles. But what if you want to go somewhere that’s up and to the left? That’s where the intermediate directions come in. The intermediate directions are in between each of the cardinal directions: northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest. On a compass rose, the directions might be abbreviated: north is N, east is E, west is W and south is S.

Which direction would you travel to get from Utah to Arizona?

• South

• West

• East

• North

What is the map scale used to figure out?

• the number of countries shown on the map

• which direction is north, south, east and west

• the real distance between places on the map

• what the map symbols mean

A __________ tells you what each symbol on the map stands for.

• legal

• legend

• Lawyer

• Title

What type of map is this?

• Political

• Physical

• Thematic

• Fun

What type of map is this?

• Political

• Physical

• Thematic

• Climate