Physical Geography

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Worksheet 1 – Earth models, maps, and geospatial technologies
(This exercise is adapted from Applied Physical Geography: Geosystems in the Laboratory by Christopherson RW)
Number of parts: 3 (A-C)
Total questions: 17
Total points: 79
Due time: 11:59PM on 2/5/2016
Important notes:
 If you use information from other sources in your answers, paraphrase it. Do not copy.
 Words bold and italic indicate key concepts.
 Numbered items preceded by an S (S1, S2, S3, …) indicate steps students are to follow to complete a lab objective.
 Questions appeared in red are those for students to answer. Questions cover not only the exercise but also the web links provided

throughout the exercise.
 Answers should be presented in the Answer Sheet whose header presents Course Name, Exercise Number, Exercise Name, and Student Name

(or Group Name). The Answer Sheet needs to be turned in by the due time as part of the assignment.
 All numbers in students’ answers need to have a unit (e.g., miles, feet, km). Answers with numbers without unit are considered as

wrong answers.
 Note that in addition to the lectures and textbooks, the contents of both the exercise and the web links may be included in the

tests.
Before doing this exercise, you must download the essentials.kmz file from Blackboard to the PhysicalGeog folder on your drive. Then,

double click the KMZ file to open it in Google EarthTM.
Part A: Latitude and Longitude
S1. Start Google Earth
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S2. From the menu bar, select Tools  Options
S3. In the Google Earth Options, make sure the 3D View panel is active, select Decimal Degrees for Show Lat/Long, and then click OK
S4. From the menu bar, choose View  Grid to turn on the geographic grid system
Question 1. (5pts) What is the difference between longitudes and latitudes?
Question 2. (5pts) Which of the following coordinates are correct? Note: Write CORRECT in the right column if the coordinate is

correct. A correct answer is worth 1 point. Please present you answers in a table as shown below.
100oN ; 100oE
30oN ; 50oE
– 20oS ; 100oE
40oS ; 80oW
10oN ; 35oE
Menu bar
Search box
Menu bar
Latitude of the mouse cursor
Places panel
Layers panel
Longitude of the mouse cursor
Zoom tool
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Question 3. (1pts) The 49th parallel north forms a portion of the border between which two countries?
Question 4. (10pts) Identify longitudes of the following cities. Hints: to search for a city, type the city name into the Search Box

and click Search. Notes: each correct answer is worth 1 point. City names Longitudes
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Cincinnati, Ohio
Niamey, Niger
Hue, Vietnam
Paris, France
Cairo, Egypt
Kathmandu, India
Sendai, Japan
Manila, Philippines
London, England
Question 5. (6pts) What are the six U.S. states through which the 100th meridian in the Western Hemisphere passes? Hints: from the

Layers panel, turn on the Borders and Labels layer to identify the states.
S5. From the menu bar, choose File  Open…
S6. In the Open dialog, navigate and select the KMZ file downloaded above, and click Open
You should now see the Earth rotating and several places added to the Places panel.
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S7. From the Places panel, select and double click the Equatorial Latitude place folder
You should now see placemarks A and B on the screen. The angular distance from placemark A to placemark B is 10o of latitude.
S8. From the tool bar, select the Show Ruler tool
S9. In the Ruler dialog, change the unit to Kilometers
The Ruler tool is used to measure distance between any two points in Google Earth. Distances may be presented without accounting for

terrain (i.e. Map Length) or with accounting for terrain (i.e. Ground Length). In other words, map lengths are crow-fly distances

whereas ground lengths are turtle-crawl distances.
Question 6. (1pt) Use the Ruler tool, determine the map distance (in Km) between placemark A and placemark B.
Question 7. (1pt) What is the map distance (in Km) between placemark C and placemark D under the Polar Latitude place folder?
Question 8. (5pts) From the answers above, what is your conclusion about the length of 10o of latitude at the equator and the length of

10o of latitude at the pole?
Question 9. (6pts) What are the map distances (in Km) of the following 10o longitudes? Note: each correct answer is worth 1 point.

Please present you answers in a table as shown below. Longitudes Distances (in Km)
Equatorial longitude
Tropical longitude
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Mid-latitude longitude
Sub-arctic longitude
Arctic longitude
Polar longitude
Question 10. (5pts) Why does the linear distance of 10o of longitude decrease as you travel from the equator to the pole?
S10. From the Places panel, turn on (check) and double click the Latitudinal Zones placemark to make the overlay visible.
Latitudinal zones are geographic regions running east-west. These zones are associated with natural environments that differ

dramatically from the equator to the poles due to the differences in the amount of solar energy received, which varies by latitudes. It

should be noted that the boundaries of these zones are rather flexible than rigid. Thus, they should be considered as transition areas

rather than a single line.
Question 11. (10pts) What latitudinal zones are the following locations in? Note: each correct answer is worth 1 point. Please present

you answers in a table as shown below. Longitudes Zones
NKU
Kaua’i
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Dunedin, New Zealand
Phu Quoc, Vietnam
Moosejaw, Saskatchewan
Miami, Florida
Reykjav’k, Iceland
Longyearbyen, Svalbard
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Tokyo, Japan
Part B: Map Scale
Map scales represent the ratios between distances on maps and those in real world. For example, a map scale of 1:24,000 means that a

distance of 1 cm measured on a map is actually 24,000 cm in reality. Map scales may be fixed and static in printed maps. However, map

scales may be dynamic in digital maps presented on computer screens. In Google Earth, the Zoom tool allows its users to change the map

scale and thus the map details. Indeed the larger the scale is, the more details you can see. Map scale may be viewed as a scale legend

at the bottom of the Google Earth interface.
S11. From the menu bar, select View  Scale Legend and then zoom in the globe to see the scale legend appearing at the lower left

corner
S12. From the Places panel, turn on and double click the Map Scale View 1. Then, use a ruler to measure the distance from Placemark 1

to Placemark 2 by placing your ruler against the screen.
Question 12. (1pt) What is the distance in cm?
S13. Use the Google Ruler tool to measure the same distance (i.e. from Placemark 1 to Placemark 2). Hints: to make it easy, set the

units of the Google Ruler tool to cm as well.
Question 13. (1pt) What is the distance in cm?
Note that the distance provided by your ruler is the map distance whereas the distance provided by the Google Ruler tool is the real

distance (or ground distance). Therefore, the map scale of this view (i.e. View 1) is calculated by taking the ratio between the

distance provided by your ruler and the distance provided by Google Earth Ruler tool.
Question 14. (1pt) What is the map scale of View 1?
S14. From the Places panel, turn on and double click the Map Scale View 2
Question 15. (1pt) What is the map scale of View 2?
Part C: GIS
Google Earth is a geographic information system (GIS) with an easy-to-use interface. Therefore, Google Earth inherits the powers of

GIS. As a result, Google Earth is able to answer the questions of what is
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where based on both locational data and attribute data demonstrated as layers. Google Earth has many layers presented in the Layers

panel. Take a few minutes to explore these layers.
Question 16. (10pts) In 3 sentences, let me know which is your most interesting layer and why?
Question 17. (10pts) If you have to choose 3 layers to answer a geographic question, what will they be and how will you use them? For

example, I would use the Roads, Places, and Photos layers to identify a hotel and the route to get there.
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