Imagine you made a drawing on an orange peel. How could you take a photo of the whole picture?
You’d have to take the peel off the orange and lay it flat. But the photo wouldn’t be exactly like your drawing. Why? Because the peel would pull apart when you flattened it. The drawing would be split into sections. This is the same problem cartographers, or mapmakers, face when they create maps. Our planet is three-dimensional. So what’s the best way to show it in a two-dimensional drawing? Over the years, cartographers have used different map projections to solve the problem. A map projection is a way to show Earth on a flat surface. They all cause Earth to look distorted, or changed, in some way.
