What does scale 1:500000 mean?
Scale 1:500000 is a ratio. The first number is a distance on the map and the second is the matching distance on the ground. One centimeter on the map stands for 500,000 centimeters in reality, which is 5,000 meters, or 5 km. One millimeter stands for 500 m.
To convert by hand, divide a ground distance by 500,000 to get the length on the map, or multiply a map length by 500,000 to get back to the ground. Both values have to be in the same unit first. In practice it is quicker to remember that every centimeter is 5 km: 7 cm on the map is 35 km, and 120 km of road is 24 cm. The calculator above handles the units for you.
The scale factor is 0.000002, or 1/500,000. A map at this scale shows a whole country or a large region. You can still follow main roads, railways, rivers, lakes, towns and the general shape of the relief. Villages become dots, and anything smaller than a few hundred meters appears as a symbol because it would be too small to draw at its true size.
Where is scale 1:500000 used?
Scale 1:500000 is common wherever a large area has to fit on one sheet and the reader moves fast across it:
- Aeronautical charts for visual flight (VFR). In Europe the ICAO 1:500 000 chart is the standard map for private pilots, and the FAA sectional charts that cover the United States use the same scale. Pilots measure legs in nautical miles with a plotter marked for 1:500,000.
- Road maps of whole countries and large regions, where a drive of several hundred kilometers fits on one folded sheet.
- Wall maps and school maps. A wall map of Germany at this scale is roughly 1.3 m wide and 1.75 m tall.
- Geological, soil and other thematic maps covering a whole country on one or a few sheets.
- Location maps in reports and planning documents, which show where a project, a protected area or a transport corridor sits within the region.
Examples of scale 1:500000 in practice
A few real distances help you picture the scale:
- 1 km of road draws as 2 mm.
- A 4 km runway, long enough for the largest airliners, is 8 mm on the chart, so airports appear as symbols.
- Windermere, 18 km long, measures 3.6 cm.
- London to Manchester, about 260 km in a straight line, spans roughly 52 cm.
- A 400 km day of driving comes to 80 cm, almost the long edge of an A1 sheet.