Verbal scale to representative fraction calculator

Geography 256/556

Instructions and answer sheet for Exercise 3 (Graded, 10 points)

LAB Exercise 3. Earth Geometry and Scale
Purpose: To reinforce concepts of earth geometry which includes geographic coordinates, important parallels, and scale.

Materials. Calculator; access to website https://in-the-sky.org/data/planets.php; if you use a smartphone try loading the app “Sky Map” or something similar; access to Google Earth; access to ArcMap (DH-101).

NOTE: Be sure to use a different color font and/or bold when writing your answers.

Part I. All Around the World with Google Earth and Our Solar System

1. (2 points ½+½+½+½) In Google Earth go to Tools | Options… and in the Show Lat/Long box push the Decimal Degrees radio button, then press Apply. Enter the following coordinates into Google Earth exactly as shown. To the right of or below the dd,mm.m formatted coordinates provided, enter the dd.ddd formatted values shown on the bottom right of the GE map pairs and listing the nearest place (or country or water body) to those coordinates.

a. 41 52.548 N, 87 37.136 W

b. 41 52.548 S, 87 37.136 W

c. 41 52.548 S, 87 37.136 E

d. 41 52.548 N, 87 37.136 E

2. (1 point) For the city or town where you live, look up your latitude. Pretend you are using a sextant to determine your latitude. The angle that you read between the North Star (Polaris) and the horizon will be __________________________.

3. (1 point ½+½) September 22nd is the autumnal equinox for the year 2018. Where will the sun be directly overhead on that day? As you recall, our sun, the earth, and most of the planets lie (approximately) on the Plane of the Ecliptic. Which of the earth’s parallels will this plane be perpendicular to on September 22nd?

4. (1 point ½+½) Using the app and/or website listed in the materials above, for the given day and time evening or night), which planets are observed along the Plane of the Ecliptic (list in order from your left and right}? Do the planets line up perfectly along this plane?

5. Find longitude from time differences:

a. At your Local Apparent Noon, or local meridian, your chronometer indicates that it is 7:40 am in Greenwich. What is your longitude?

b. At your Local Apparent Noon, or local meridian, your chronometer indicates that it is 4:20 pm in Greenwich. What is your longitude?

Part II. Scale

6. (2 points ½+½+½+½) Answer the following:

a. Convert the following verbal scale to a representative fraction: 1 inch to four miles (you can approximate) and list.

b. Which of the following representative fractions is found on the largest scale map: A) 1:500,000 or B) 1:63,360?

c. If the dimensions of the map sheets for both maps A or B are the same, which of the two maps will have the largest extent (area coverage)?

d. Which map, A or B, will most likely have the greatest detail or least generalization?

7. From the Lab 3 assignment folder in Blackboard download and save to your Z: drive both the Lab 3 Scale Types.mxd (a map document file) and the geodatabase folder titled United States 48.gdb. You will need to unzip the database file after you have save it to your Z drive. (Note: it would be best to create a sub-folder [named Scales for example] in your Z Lab 3 folder). Double-click on the map document file and the layout view should open with two maps (Map A and Map B) of the 48 contiguous states of the US. In the images below, the menu items you will need are indicated

Insert. With this menu item you can insert different types of scale bars into the map layout

RF scale that you can adjust

Activate. Right-click on the map layer and select Activate to highlight and work with the appropriate layer.

Insert | Text Scale… . Verbal Scale

Insert | Text Scale… . RF Scale

The bar (or graphic) scale can be accessed by going to Insert |Scale Bar… .

a. (½ point) For both Maps A and B insert the three scale bar types and place them in the lower left-hand side of each map. You can change the font and make other changes by double-clicking on the scale. Try aligning the scales by clicking on the three scales for a map while holding down the shift key, then right-click and go to Align. How would you characterize the extent of the maps—are they different or are they the same, but just at different scales?

b. (½ point) Once you have inserted all scale bars, activate Map B and change the scale in the menu bar to 1:50,000,000. What happens to the three scales? How do they compare to the original RF scale? Return Map B to its original scale.

c. (1 point) Using the snip tool, cut out the entire layout from ArcMap and paste below.