The Handy Geography Answer Book. Paul A Tucci

The United States and Mexico scored the lowest.

      The media subsequently reported the “geographic illiteracy” of the American population, the inability to use geographic understanding and reasoning in order to make decisions or draw conclusions. Due to the attention given to this problem, geographic education has since become a greater priority for educators.

      As for the U.S. respondents, 60% cannot find the country of Iraq on a map of the Middle East, 40% do not know where Pakistan is located, and 33% could not find the state of Louisiana on a map. The study further found that less than 30% of all U.S. respondents said that it is absolutely necessary to know where countries in the news are located, and only 14% of U.S. respondents felt that fluency in another language is a necessary skill.

       MAPS

HISTORY AND INSTRUMENTS

      How old is the oldest known map?

      Researchers often point to early Mesopotamia and Egypt, around 5000 B.C.E. to 2000 B.C.E., when discussing the earliest of maps. Around 2700 B.C.E., the Sumerians drew sketch maps in clay tablets that represented their cities. These maps are some of the oldest-known maps. Debate continues whether or not examples of cave drawings, which appeared tens of thousands of years before, actually depict maps. Knowing and depicting where we are is as old as civilization itself.

      What is the oldest map using the word America?

      The map, acquired by the Library of Congress and dated 1507, incorporates many of the findings of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The map was thought to be lost but was rediscovered in 1901 and was kept in a castle in Wolfegg, Germany, for more than 350 years.

      What is the oldest known map drawn to scale?

      In the sixth century B.C.E., the Greek geographer Anaximander created the first known map drawn to scale. His map was circular, included known parts of Europe and Asia, and placed Greece at its center.

      What makes a piece of paper a map?

      No matter what the medium, all maps must be a representation of an area of the Earth, celestial bodies, or space. Though maps are commonly printed on paper, they can come in a variety of forms, from being drawn in the sand to being viewed on handheld devices like phones/tablets and computers. A map should have a legend (a guide explaining the map’s symbols), a notation of which way is north, and an indicator of scale. No map is perfect and every map is unique.

      What is a good way to learn where places are?

      The best way to learn about places that you have heard of is to look them up in an updated atlas, a collection of maps bound in a book. An atlas may include additional information, such as illustrations, statistical tables, topography, and other important information about a place or places. If you would rather use the Internet, you may try to enter the place in the search box at your favorite search engine, and then click on the results. You may also use online sites and apps for your mobile device, such as “Google Maps,” Apple’s “Maps,” MapQuest, Rand McNally, or Yahoo Maps. You will be surprised by the amount of information you can find!

      Why is a book of maps called an atlas?

      The term “atlas” comes from the name of a mythological Greek figure, Atlas. As punishment for fighting with the Titans against the gods, Atlas was forced to hold up the planet Earth and the heavens on his shoulders. Because Atlas was often pictured on ancient books of maps, these became known as atlases.

      What is interesting about Google’s Street View?

      Google’s Street View is interesting because it allows users to begin their journey by seeing images of the Earth and allows users to drill down to a geographic location at the view of the place on the street. Google even has Street View images under the ocean at the Great Barrier Reef, off the northeast coast of Australia, and at many other ocean sites around the world. Google has transformed maps that we may use every day, by offering satellite imagery, road maps, and street-level images for use on our smartphones, mobile devices, and computers of all types.

      What do cartographers do for a living?

      Cartographers are often employed in publishing, government, military, land surveying, and conservation sectors. They contribute to the scientific, technological, and artistic components to the making of maps. Additionally, cartographers frequently provide complex information, using diagrams, charts, and spreadsheets.

      How do cartographers shape our world?

      Cartographers are mapmakers and cartography is the art of mapmaking. Cartographers map neighborhoods, cities, states, countries, the world, and even other planets. There are as many types of maps to make as there are cartographers to make them.

      What country would purposely create false maps?

      Within the former Soviet Union, incorrect maps were produced as a matter of course. Soviet maps purposely showed the locations of towns, rivers, and roads in incorrect places. Often, in different editions of the same map, towns would disappear from one version to the next. Street maps of Moscow were particularly incorrect and nonproportional. This cartographic mischief of the former U.S.S.R. was an effort to keep the geography of the country a secret, not only from foreigners but also from its own citizens. Even official government agencies were not allowed to have accurate maps.

      Who decides which names go on maps?

      In the United States, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN, comprising of representatives of many federal agencies) approves the official names and spellings of cities, rivers, lakes, and even foreign countries. If a town would like to change its name, it must petition the BGN for approval. Upon approval, the name is officially changed and updated in federal government gazetteers and records, which official and commercial mapmakers use to make their maps.

      Cartographers make all kinds of maps, such as maps of the world, countries, states, or cities, such as this street map of Berlin.

      How can maps be used to start wars?

      Throughout history, many countries have used maps as a means to justify aggression to a neighboring country by asserting ownership of some land, based upon their version of a map. For example, prior to its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq produced official maps that showed the independent country of Kuwait as Iraq’s nineteenth province. Iraq used these maps as justification for its 1990 invasion and attempted annexation of Kuwait (Iraq was interested in Kuwait’s oil reserves). Maps have been, and still are, used by a multitude of countries, provinces, and cities to prove or disprove the ownership of a certain piece of land.

       How do I get to the refrigerator in the dark?

      Not all maps are written on paper. When trying to reach the refrigerator at night, we do not smell our way to food, we use a map based upon our memory of the room. If we stumble on our way, it is usually over a misplaced toy or shoe that we did not remember leaving there. Everyone has this mental imagery in his or her mind. These mental maps help you find your way not only to the refrigerator in the dark but also to the grocery store, to work, and to every place that we go. People not only have mental maps of common trips they make but also of their city, country, and even the world. Every person’s mental map is unique, based upon how wide an area that person travels and his or her knowledge of the world.

      What other countries have disputes over lines drawn on maps?

      Japan, China, and Taiwan all have a dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the Pacific Ocean. India and Pakistan have an ongoing dispute over ownership of the northernmost region of Kashmir in India. China has disputed claims of sovereignty by Taiwan. North and South Korea are still in conflict over lines drawn by Korean and American forces that split the country decades ago.

      How