Which projection is not advisable beyond 70 degrees latitude because of distortion?

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Multiple Choice

Which projection is not advisable beyond 70 degrees latitude because of distortion?

The main idea is how distortion behaves as you move toward the poles. The Mercator projection keeps local shapes accurate (it’s conformal), but its scale grows with latitude, increasing as 1/cos(latitude). As you approach the poles, cos(latitude) approaches zero, and the scale explodes, so distances and areas become extremely distorted. That makes it unsuitable beyond about 70° latitude for reliable representation. Cylindrical and Conical projections aren’t inherently limited in this way; they can be chosen to minimize distortion over a region with standard parallels, and the Gnomonic projection is used for plotting great circles in a limited area from a centered point, so its distortion is more about edge effects than a fixed latitude threshold.

The main idea is how distortion behaves as you move toward the poles. The Mercator projection keeps local shapes accurate (it’s conformal), but its scale grows with latitude, increasing as 1/cos(latitude). As you approach the poles, cos(latitude) approaches zero, and the scale explodes, so distances and areas become extremely distorted. That makes it unsuitable beyond about 70° latitude for reliable representation. Cylindrical and Conical projections aren’t inherently limited in this way; they can be chosen to minimize distortion over a region with standard parallels, and the Gnomonic projection is used for plotting great circles in a limited area from a centered point, so its distortion is more about edge effects than a fixed latitude threshold.

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