Where does this come from, and can I check it?

A scale of 1 to 50,000 means one centimetre on paper covers half a kilometre on the ground. The figure is taken from USGS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a world geography fact?

Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Map scale is a ratio, not a ruler

A scale of 1 to 50,000 means one centimetre on paper covers half a kilometre on the ground The second number gives the same unit as the first, so the ratio works for any measurement system. Large-scale maps show small areas in detail, while small-scale maps cover continents with little detail. Enlarging a printed map does not change its scale ratio, only its size. It sits in Mondo's world geography collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

USGS

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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World Geography trivia Science trivia

More facts like this

Contour lines join points of equal heightWhere the lines crowd together the ground is steep, and where they spread out it is gentle The Mercator projection inflates the poles enormouslyOn this map Greenland looks as large as Africa, though Africa is about fourteen times bigger Every flat map distorts area, shape or distanceA sphere cannot be flattened without stretching something, so mapmakers choose which error to accept The Peters projection trades shape for accurate areaIt keeps relative sizes honest but makes continents long and thin, and it is widely criticised Australia is wider than the MoonThe continent spans about 4,000 kilometres, while the Moon's diameter is roughly 3,475 There are three different kinds of northTrue north, magnetic north and grid north point in different directions depending on where you stand

Tags: maps, scale, cartography

Map scale is a ratio, not a ruler: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: A scale of 1 to 50,000 means one centimetre on paper covers half a kilometre on the ground. The figure is taken from USGS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a world geography fact?: Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.