Map Layout and Composition Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: False

North at the top is a strong convention, not a rule. A region that is long on a diagonal - a valley, a coastline, a linear transport corridor - may fit the sheet far better rotated, and route maps and strip maps are routinely drawn along the line of travel. What is required in every case is a north arrow, so the reader knows the orientation whatever it is.

Answer: B

The first two describe how a series works. The third is wrong, since a shared projection is precisely what allows the sheets to join along their edges, and varying it would leave gaps or overlaps wherever two sheets met.

Answer: C

Matching the shape of the sheet to the shape of the region wastes least space and lets the largest possible scale be used. Colour, legend length and the scale itself have no bearing on the choice, which is settled by the shape of the ground.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 1:300,000

The scale is the ground distance divided by the sheet distance, both in the same units: \[ \frac{90\ \mathrm{km}}{30\ \mathrm{cm}} = \frac{9{,}000{,}000\ \mathrm{cm}}{30\ \mathrm{cm}} = 300{,}000. \] So 1:300,000 fits the width exactly. A larger scale means a smaller denominator, and 1:200,000 would need 45 cm of sheet - more than there is.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 20 cm

\[ \frac{60\ \mathrm{km}}{300{,}000} = \frac{6{,}000{,}000\ \mathrm{cm}}{300{,}000} = 20\ \mathrm{cm}. \] The same divisor applies in both directions, so the 90 by 60 km region becomes a 30 by 20 cm map face - the shape is preserved, which is the whole point of a single scale applying to the sheet.

Answer: B

Correct answer: False

Fitting the width settles only one dimension. A region that is tall relative to its width will overrun the height at the scale that fills the width, and the scale must then be reduced until both fit - the binding constraint is whichever dimension runs out first. In practice the sheet is chosen by comparing the region’s aspect ratio with the map face’s, and the worse the mismatch, the more sheet is wasted.

Answer: C

Correct answer: the border area surrounding the map face

The collar is the margin between the neat line and the sheet edge, and it is where the marginalia live - title, legend, scale, credits, grid values, sheet number and index diagram. Treating it as dead space is the usual mistake; it is a designed part of the sheet with its own composition.

Answer: D

It is a drafting aid governing where things sit on the page, and it never appears in the printed result. The coordinate grid used for ground references is an entirely separate thing which does appear, and confusing the two is a common slip of vocabulary.

Answer: A

Both statements are true, but the reason does not establish the assertion. That the eye enters at the upper left is an argument for putting the title there, whereas what makes it a convention rather than a rule is simply that other placements also work.

Answer: B

An empty sea area or an unmapped corner can hold the legend without covering anything, and doing so leaves more of the sheet for the region. The judgement is whether the space is genuinely empty, not whether the practice is allowed.