Ratio
Definition
In geography, ratio refers to scale expressed as a numerical relationship between distance on the map and distance on the ground.
Analogy
Imagine you're looking at blueprints for your dream house. The blueprint might say that one inch equals ten feet. That means if you measure something as two inches long on paper, it would be twenty feet long in real life! That's exactly how ratios work in geographical scales.
Related terms
Scale Factor: The ratio between any two sets of measurements or scales.
Representative Fraction (RF): Another term for ratio scale; it expresses scale as a simple fraction or ratio where both numerator and denominator are in same units so they cancel out leaving no units—just like our blueprint example!
Absolute Distance: The exact measurement between two places using standard units such as miles or kilometers.
"Ratio" appears in:
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