A good map will include an indication of its scale. There are several ways that scale may be expressed, and maps will occasionally employ more than one.
If one has more than one map, they will often be different in scale. It is customary to speak of large scale maps and small scale maps, and to say that one map is larger in scale than another. Map scale will help to determine how much detail can be included on a particular map, and also how large an area can be depicted.
