The article talks about what a card is, why it is needed, what types of cards are, and in particular, about a map of Russia and the world.
Ancient times
The widespread development of the continents and the discovery of new lands began in the Middle Ages and continued until the beginning of the 20th century. The last "surrendered" to the people of Antarctica, which became the grave for many researchers. But with the development of navigation and travel in general, an acute need for maps gradually arose. After all, new lands or the path traveled had to be somehow noted for followers. The first cards were very rough and sketchy images. Due to the poor development of navigation equipment and, as a result, the low accuracy of the maps, their compilers, compensating for the latter, competed in the decoration. But, fortunately, in our time cartography has reached its heights, especially with the launch of thousands of satellites into orbit. So what is a card? What are they and what are they for? This we will understand.
Definition
According to the dictionary, a geographical map is an image of the Earth’s surface with a coordinate grid, observing proportions relative to its scale and drawing conventional symbols.
If we take this definition as a general one, then a card can be called a generalized, smaller image of the Earth's surface, another planet, a celestial body or space as a whole, which shows all objects in a particular system of conventional signs. What is the map we figured out, but why is it needed?
The answer is very simple - for orientation. Finding any specific objects or their array on the ground and doing the same on the map, you can accurately determine your location. In fact, it is absolutely impossible to do without maps in our time, even the abundance of pointers will not help, in addition, they are not everywhere.
The cards are used by tourists and geologists, captains of sea vessels, military and civil pilots, after all, in a big city you can’t do without guides, since anyone can get lost in the interweaving of streets. Now we know what cards are. But what kinds of them are there?
Kinds
The first and most basic is geographical. It accurately shows the outlines of the continents, respects all proportions on one scale or another and indicates natural objects - rivers, seas, mountains, lakes, forests, etc. But such can be found not so often, and more common geographic, which also marked roads, cities and other settlements.
The second type is thematic maps. They are dedicated to any one object - a natural park, forest or tourist route. This kind can also include socio-political. Their goal is not just to reliably show the terrain, but to display one or another state - maps of states, their natural wealth, political system or population size.
Map of Russia
The territory of this country ranks first in the world in terms of area. And her map is also the largest, and at all scales. It includes many natural and climatic mountains. Over the past centuries, it has changed many times due to wars and political regimes, and the map with the largest scale was created in the Soviet Union. Of course, it includes those territories that in our time do not belong to Russia, but it is suitable for orientation.
World map
The final and complete image of the globe was obtained only with the discovery of all the continents. But for a long time it was supplemented by new objects, such as islands. Now everyone can get acquainted with the world map, and for this there is no need to look for an atlas - high-quality satellite images are available to all Internet users.
So now we know what a card is and what it is for.