conic projection

noun Cartography.

a map projection based on the concept of projecting the earth's surface on a conical surface, which is then unrolled to a plane surface.

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British Dictionary definitions for conic projection

conic projection

conical projection

noun

a map projection on which the earth is shown as projected onto a cone with its apex over one of the poles and with parallels of latitude radiating from this apex

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

conic projection in Science

conic projection

[kŏn′ĭk]

A map projection in which the surface features of a globe are depicted as if projected onto a cone typically positioned so as to rest on the globe along a parallel (a line of equal latitude). In flattened form a conic projection produces a roughly semicircular map with the area below the apex of the cone at its center. When the central point is either of Earth's poles, parallels appear as concentric arcs and meridians as straight lines radiating from the center. Distances along the meridians remain true to scale, while the distortion along the parallels is progressively greater moving away from the parallel on which the cone is assumed to rest. Conic projections centered over a pole are often used in regional or national maps of temperate zones, where the distortion in the middle latitudes (the resting point of the cone) is minimal. Compare azimuthal projection cylindrical projection.