A scale is a device or instrument that measures the mass of an object. While scales originated as simple balances, they have evolved into instruments that increase in size, range, extent, and constant proportion as the quantity of the object increases. If you’ve ever been on a scale, you know what it’s like to be in the middle of a large pile of dishes and cups weighing pounds. But what exactly is a scale?
A scale is the relationship between an object’s actual dimensions and its representation. It helps us represent things in the real world on paper in a smaller scale. It is often used in mapmaking, as a standard for comparing distances between different points. It is also used in music, with the scale representing the ratio of two different lengths. The definition of scale can be found in the American Heritage Student Science Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company).
In cartography, the concept of scale is essential. A map may have many scales, depending on the size and shape of the region. However, the scale of a country’s population, for example, will vary with latitude. To avoid this, the best way to understand the concept of scale is to compare it to other regions of the world. Using a reference map can help you make sense of the spatial relationship between countries and continents.
A map’s scale is a proportion between the distances on the map and their corresponding distance on the ground. It’s usually expressed as a representative fraction. For example, reducing a 1:100,000 scale map to half its size results in a map with a quarter of the area of the original. In this case, the map scale would be 1/200,000. Geospatial information specialists avoid enlarging source maps because it increases generalizations and errors.