What are the differences between a physical map and a political map quizlet?

The difference between political map and physical map stems from the purpose for which they were created. Before explaining that further, let us first see what a map is. Maps are representations of natural features and landforms on a piece of paper with greatly scaled down ratios. Maps are important as they can be used to locate a place in an unknown area and also to get directions to reach a particular point. To meet the requirements of the people, different types of maps are available in the market. Two important types of maps are the political map and the physical map. While a physical map is designed to show geographic features of an area such as mountains and rivers, a political map is one that depicts the cities, roads and borders of different countries. This is the main difference between political map and physical map, but there are other differences too that will be made clear in this article.

What is a Political Map?

Political maps show borders, cities, states, capitals, populations, the whole world, or just continents. These maps are great companions when a person is taking a trip to another country and is not aware of the routes.The scale of the map is given in the legend and can be used to locate a route to a particular place of interest in any country with the help of the political map of that country. Political maps are flat as there is no need to mention or depict mountains or water bodies’ height or depth. They can also indicate the location of major cities. Though political maps do not need to include details of every water body, usually they include significant water bodies.

What is a Physical Map?

On the other hand, physical maps are a pictorial representation of the relief features of a particular area and more useful for students of geography. These maps contain all the land forms such as mountains, plateaus, valleys, water bodies such as rivers, streams, oceans and much, much more. The maps are useful for pilots when they are flying over valleys and mountains and also for mountaineers to get to the right direction if they suddenly feel they have lost their way. Sometimes there are physical maps that are three dimensional.

What is the difference between Political Map and Physical Map?

Maps are important pieces of information to understand about a country or a larger place. There are different types of maps devised for different purposes. Political map and physical map are two such maps with differences in the details they contain.

• Physical maps are representation of geographical features such as mountains, water bodies, deserts, and forests in a place whereas political maps help to know the borders, states, cities, roads and population of a place.

• Political maps usually mark the major cities and also the major water bodies though they do not mark every water body as physical maps do.

• Political maps are flat while physical maps are sometimes three dimensional.

• Physical maps show how a place looks like when viewed from a height and thus contains only physical features while a political map shows how the world has been separated by borders marking different countries.

• Physical maps make use of different colors to depict different relief features such as mountains in brown, water bodies in blue and forests in green. Political maps are, on the other hand, black and white in color as they just need to mark different boundaries.

• Political maps are important for charity organizations when doling out money or food during natural disasters as they can distribute things to the needs based upon demarcations of a political map.

As you can now understand political map and physical map serve different purposes. So, if you have a clear idea about why you need a map, then choosing one is not so hard.

The key difference between Physical Map and Political Map is that Physical Map indicates the natural features of a place like mountains, waterbodies plains, etc. and The political map shows territorial features like country, cities, nations and their boundaries.

Physical Map vs. Political Map — Is There a Difference?

ADVERTISEMENT

Difference Between Physical Map and Political Map

Physical Map vs. Political Map

Physical maps represent geographical features such as mountains, deserts, water bodies, and forests in a place while political represents the borders, cities, states, roads, and population.

Physical Map vs. Political Map

Political maps usually mark the major cities and major water bodies however they do not indicate every water body as physical maps do.

Physical Map vs. Political Map

Political maps are flat on the other hand physical maps are sometimes three dimensional.

Physical Map vs. Political Map

Physical maps indicate how a place looks like when viewed from height and thus contains only physical properties while a political map shows how the world has been separated into countries by borders.

Physical Map vs. Political Map

Political maps are important for charity organizations when doling out money or food during natural disasters as they can distribute things to the needs-based upon demarcations of a political map.

Physical Map vs. Political Map

Normally, dull colors are used to show features in a physical map, whereas at a political map bright colors are used to differentiate between different cities, states, and countries.

ADVERTISEMENT

Comparison Chart

Physical MapPolitical MapA map used to indicate the forms of landscape and water bodies of an area.A map that helps in representing the geographical boundaries, roads, and other similar features of an area.UseIt is used to show geographical properties.It is used to show territorial borders.FeaturesRaised or dippedFlatColors usedDull colors are used.Bright colors are used.

ADVERTISEMENT

Physical Map vs. Political Map

The difference between a political map and physical map stems from the purpose for which they are created. Before discussing that further, let us first see what a map is. Maps are representations of natural features and landforms on a piece of paper with greatly downscaled ratios. Maps are important as they could be used to locate a place in an unknown area and also used to get directions to reach a particular location. To meet the requirements, different types of maps are available out there. Two important types of maps are the political map and physical map. A physical map is used to show geographic properties of an area such as mountains and rivers, while a political map is one that shows the cities, roads, and borders of different countries. This is the key difference between a political map and physical map, but there are other differences that we will discuss in this article.

What is Physical Map?

Physical map or otherwise called as relief maps would be the one which shows the natural qualities of a form of land and bodies of water which are observed in a specific area. In finer terms, it’s a visual representation of how our earth looks from space. In this map, the water bodies such as oceans, rivers, ponds, and lakes are portrayed in blue color. Likewise, brown color indicates hills and plateaus, different shades of green are utilized to represent elevations on a physical map. These maps help to comprehend, the assortment of elevation in the area, mountains or plateaus from the area, rivers in that area, direction where the river flows and so on.

What is Political Map?

Political Map is called a map used by travellers, tourists or other people to find several areas, population, roads, highways, etc. of a specific area. The principal feature of political maps is that it reveals administrative subdivisions of earth, or other geographic areas such as continents, states, country, cities, villages, and towns. Political MapThese maps utilize large water bodies such as oceans, sea, lakes, and rivers as a landmark. There are further three types of political maps, which are General Maps, Survey Maps, and Specialised Maps.

Conclusion

Maps are designed from the cartographers, who use different colors to highlight unique features on a map. While the physical map shows landforms without considering the individual alterations, a political map is one which suggests humanmade characteristics of an area.

What is difference between physical map and political map?

Political Maps - does not show physical features. Instead, they show state and national boundaries and capital and major cities. Physical Maps - illustrate the physical features of an area, such as the mountains, rivers and lakes.

What are the similarities between a political map and a physical map?

Both the physical and political maps use different colors to represent different elements. More bright colors are used on a political map to distinguish between the countries and the states clearly.

What is a political map quizlet?

Political Map. a map that shows borders, cities, capital cities countries, and land ownership.

What are 3 features of a physical map?

Some common features of maps include scale, symbols, and grids. All maps are scale models of reality. A map's scale indicates the relationship between the distances on the map and the actual distances on Earth.