Final answer:
A 7.5-minute map provides more detail than a 15-minute map, because it has a finer scale (typically 1:24,000) and covers a smaller geographic area, resulting in higher resolution details for uses like hiking or detailed geographic studies.
Step-by-step explanation:
A 7.5-minute map provides more detail than a 15-minute map. The term '7.5-minute' refers to the amount of geographic area each map covers and is related to the scale of the map. Specifically, a 7.5-minute map covers a quadrangle measuring 7.5 minutes of latitude and 7.5 minutes of longitude. Since one minute of latitude is approximately one mile, a 7.5-minute map spans about 7.5 miles north to south. A 15-minute map covers a quadrangle that is 15 minutes by 15 minutes, which is about 15 miles north to south.
The scale of a 7.5-minute map is typically 1:24,000 in the United States. This means that one inch on the map represents 24,000 inches (or 2,000 feet) in the real world. Due to this finer scale, a 7.5-minute map shows more detail, making it an excellent choice for applications needing high-resolution data like hiking, land navigation, or detailed geographic studies. The 15-minute map scales, on the other hand, are usually 1:62,500, which means they cover a larger area with less detail than 7.5-minute maps.
The level of detail on a map is inversely proportional to the map scale, meaning the smaller the scale fraction (the denominator), the more detail the map can convey. Because 7.5-minute maps have smaller scale fractions compared to 15-minute maps, they include finer details such as smaller roads or geographic features and more precise contour lines for elevation.