Physical Map of the United States

In this map taken from mapsoftheunitedstates.org, one can see a physical map of the United States of America. This map is intended to show the terrain of America by shading elevated areas as orange or purple while flatter areas are green. However, the map does not indicate the coloring in a legend. The only way to be certain of this is by looking at the Rocky Mountains or other known mountains and viewing the color scheme. The map does show a few major highways in red. Clearly, the map is only intended to show the terrain of only the United States as other countries are shaded plain gray. Also, the map names the states in a lighter shade than geographic names, such as the Appalachian Mountains. Furthermore, an interesting aspect of this map is that it shows the relative depths of the oceans by different shades as well.

Map of our Solar System

In this map obtained from davidrowan.co.uk, one can clearly see a map of our solar system. We see the sun located in the center of the planetary orbits. The orbits of the planets are not delineated. The relative sizes of each planet to each other can possibly be taken as accurate. However, this is no way of being 100% sure without notification. Additionally, the moons of the various planets are shown. It is interesting to see how the cartographer oriented the map relative to the sun as it is in the center of the solar system. The map seems to show a cross section of the planets aligned in orbit. However, the planets are almost never aligned perfectly. This hints that the author wanted to only show the relative sizes and positions of the planets to one another and not their actual location. Lastly, there is no kind of direction or orientation given (i.e. north, south). This bolsters the idea that the author was not trying to show the actual location in space of each planet.

Map of Corona

In this map taken from Google Maps, my hometown of Corona, California is shown. In this map, one may clearly see two major arteries that run through, the 91 and 15 freeways. The major streets are highlighted in a light yellow. Additionally, parks, forests, or golf courses are seen in a shade of green. The large green area in the southwest corner of the map is the Cleveland National Forest. The shading of this map is quite interesting. The colors for busy streets, side streets, parks, airports are consistent. The cartographer clearly has an understanding of the busier streets in Corona based on the shading of streets. Lastly, an interesting thing to note is the circular street in the center of the map. The street's name is Grand Boulevard. The reason to note this is that in Spanish Corona means crown. Thus, this street was very important in naming the town.