Source: jewelpie.com

Bare with me here; this culinary hack shows several images that are helpful for explaining how map projections represent parts of the Earth (or the orange in this example).  The Polar regions are often displayed in azimuthal projections which are most accurate near one specified point.  Slicing the orange at the top and bottom is akin to creating polar azimuthal projections.  Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) is a system that divides Earth into 60 “slices” with each wedge representing 6 degrees of longitude.  Each wedge has a Meractor projection map with perfect representation along a central line of longitude.  If we imagine the peel adjacent to one wedge has been flattened out, that is good way to visualize UTM maps.  

Tags:  mapping, map projections, cartography, perspective, map.