The process of showing the Earth's surface on a flat map is called

• A. Map Projection
• B. Photorevision
• C. Graticule
• D. Choropleth

Answer: (A)

Showing the Earth's curved surface on a flat map is done through map projection, the set of mathematical rules that translate latitude and longitude into x and y coordinates on a plane. Because a sphere can't be flattened without distortion, every projection warps some aspect—area, shape, distance, or direction—depending on what the map is designed to preserve. The grid of latitude and longitude lines you see on a map is called a graticule, which helps read coordinates but isn’t the actual transformation. A choropleth is a type of thematic map that uses shading to represent data across areas, not the projecting process. Photorevision isn’t the standard term for this concept. So the process described is map projection.