>Message: 12
> Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2003 18:18:17 +0200
> From: "Jesper Nielsen" <jesniel@...>
>Subject: Large/Small scale map
>
>What is what?
>
>What scale is it when you zoom out and see few details?
A map scale is a ratio.
The numerator(the number 'on top') is typically 1.
The denominator(the number 'on the bottom') can be anything,
such as 24,000(typical of USGS topo maps), 50,000(typical of
Canadain topo maps), etc.
The larger the number on the bottom of the ratio, the smaller
the number that is represented, therefore the smaller the scale.
1:10,000 scale is "large scale" when compared with 1:1,000,000.
From Garmin's 'Using a Garmin GPS with paper maps for land navigation':
"Large scale maps generally display more detail but less area,
while small scale maps inversly provide a view of more area
with less detail".
http://www.garmin.com/aboutGPS/manual.html
--
Dave Patton
Canadian Coordinator, the Degree Confluence Project
http://www.confluence.org dpatton@...
My website:
http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/