Geographer

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Geographers Tools

• Maps
• Globes
• Graphs

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Organization

• The grid that covers a globe is made of lines
  that run east to west and north to south.
• Lines of latitude run east-west
• Lines of longitude run north-south

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Organization

• The equator is an imaginary line that circles the
  globe halfway between Earth.
• Lines of latitude measure distances north and
  south of the equator. They are also know as
  parallels
• The prime meridian is an imaginary line drawn
  from the North Pole through England to the South
  Pole
• Lines of longitude, also called meridians,
  measure distance east and west of the P.M.

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Parallels and meridians measure distances in
degrees. Those north of the equator are noted
with an N, south with an S. Meridians can go
west or east of the prime meridian and will be
noted with a W or E
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Hemispheres, Continents, and Oceans

• The equator divides the world into two halves, or
  hemispheres. Northern and Southern
• The prime meridian and the 180 meridian divide
  the world into Eastern and Western Hemispheres
• 7 Continents
• 4 Oceans

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Maps

• Flat representations of all or part of Earths
  surface.
• There are many ways of presenting our round earth
  on flat maps these are called map projections
• Because the earth is round, all flat maps have
  some distortion
• Most common maps projections are cylindrical,
  conic, and flat-plane

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Cylindrical Maps

• Designed as if a cylinder has been wrapped around
  the globe
• Meridians parallel
• Landmasses near poles larger than they really are

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A Mercator map, is a type of cylindrical map
projection. It is useful to navigators because
it shows true direction and shape. However
landmasses appear larger than they really are.
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Conic Maps

• Designed as if a cone has been placed over the
  globe
• Most accurate along lines of latitude
• Retains almost true size and shapes of landmasses

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Most useful for areas with long east-west
dimensions (USA, Russia)
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Flat-plane

• Appear to touch the globe at one point, such as
  North or South Pole.
• Useful for showing true direction for airplane
  pilots and ship navigators

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Flat-plane shows true area size but distorts shape
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Great Circle Route

• A straight line on a flat map is not the shortest
  distance
• Shortest route is called a great-circle route
• Pilots and ship captains use great-circle routes
  to help navigate

The loxodrome is a line of constant heading, and
the great circle, although appearing longer than
the loxodrome, is actually the shortest route
between New York and London.
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Geographic Coordinates

• Absolute location
• is shown as (latitude, longitude) or (33N,118W)
  which is the location of El Segundo
• Distance between Lines
• If you divide the circumference of the earth
  (approximately 25,000 miles) by 360 degrees, the
  distance on the earth's surface for each one
  degree of latitude or longitude is just over 69
  miles, or 111 km

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Even more precise

• Minutes and Seconds
• For precision purposes, degrees of longitude and
  latitude have been divided into minutes (') and
  seconds ("). There are 60 minutes in each degree.
  Each minute is divided into 60 seconds. Seconds
  can be further divided into tenths, hundredths,
  or even thousandths.
• El Segundo (33.925 N,118.415 W)

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Map Elements

• Cartographers provide basic map elements to help
  us translate the codes that contain information
  on maps
• Almost all maps have several common elements
• Distance scale
• Key
• Directional indicator

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Distance Scale

• Distance scales helps us determine real distance
  between two points on a map
• Distances measured and measurements used can vary

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Keys

• A maps legend, or key, identifies the symbols
  representing cities, roads, and other features.
• They can use colors to represent different
  elevations, regions, and locations

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Directional Indicators

• Shows which directions on a map are north, south,
  east, and west
• A compass rose has arrows that point to all four
  principal directions

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Other Elements

• Inset maps are used to focus in on a small part
  of a larger map
• They can focus in on a specific area or focus on
  an area that is far away
• The map of the USA shows both contiguous and non
  contiguous states.
• Contiguous means connected or bordering

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Special-purpose maps

• The two main types of maps we will be using are
  political and physical feature maps
• Other include
• Climate and precipitation maps
• Population and economic maps
• Elevation profile and topographic maps

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Climate and Precipitation Maps
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Population and Economic Maps
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Elevation maps and elevation profiles help us
better understand the location of physical
features for an area Elevation is the
height above sea level
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Topography - or elevation is shown on contour
maps
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Climate Graphs and Population Pyramids

• Climate graphs show the average temperatures and
  precipitation in a place.
• Population pyramids show the percentage of males
  and females by age group in a countrys
  population
• Help us understand population trends in countries
• Name comes from pyramid shape
• If not in shape of a pyramid, called
  age-structure diagram

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