From MapHist.com - Glossary of Terms for historical maps

Glossary of Terms
Distortion
By Pierre Joppen
Jul 7, 2004, 08:44

The result of changing the shape of a figure from its original form. In the process of map projection the shape, distance, area and angles of features on the curved surface of the Earth are stretched or compressed in order to retain their positional accuracy on a flat map.

This Article was published on MapHist.com - http://www.MapHist.com