Longitude

Today in class we continued our notes on longitude and latitude, focusing more on the longitude portion of it. Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the Earth's surface. The Prime Meridian passes through Greenwich, England, and is given the position of 0 degrees longitude. Longitude Lines are known as Meridians, just like latitude lines are known as parallel. They run in North and South direction. Latitude lines run in east- west directions. Longitude lines are farthest apart at the equator and meet at the poles. They're equal in length and are halves of great circles.During class today we were taking notes and we always take notes in the dark and when we walk through the classroom it's always dark and today Mr. Schick finally told someone to turn them on and it was such a weird feeling like it felt unnatural for the lights to be on, but it was kinda cool.

Grids and Time zones (ways of describing where things are)

In class today, we continued working with maps and focused more on the longitude latitude part of them. Geography is the study of where things are found on the Earth's surface and the reason for there locations. Two important questions about this were: Where are people and activities found on Earth? and Why are they found there. The definition of a map is basically a two dimensional or flat-scale model of the Earth's surface (or a portion of it). Maps are made by cartographers. Cartography is the art and science of mapmaking. Maps serve two purposes. As a reference tool to identify an objects absolute and relative location , or it can be used as a communications tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features. Absolute location as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude (north or south of the equator) and longitude (east or west Prime Meridian). Relative location is the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position other places. Latitude is measured by imaginary lines running parallel to the equator.

situation- notes

Today in human geo we talked about how situation is the location of a place relative to other places. When it comes to situation on a map finding an unfamiliar place and understanding its importance should be what you look for. Some places are important because they are accessible to other places due to their location. Mr. Schick went around and asked some of us where our copybooks came from and most people said from Vietnam. We were discussing how a lot of US merchandise and such are designed here but sent over to Asia for manufactory because the labor laws and pay are less expensive and strict. We learned from one of the exchange students from Beijing, China, Tom, that kids over there could honestly get away with working underage as young as like sixteen years old. The health benefits are also really bad over there and they don't really see it as their problem.

Site- notes

Today in human geo we discussed how there are physical characteristics of places such as (climate, water sources, topography, soil, and vegetation), this is called site. The factors of a site where some settle can also depend on their culture. This method of observation was probably often used when people first started to settle in new places. Humans have the ability to modify the characteristics of a site. Some people when they are settling, choose places with a body of water nearby because for some it’s an easy food source. We also talked about how certain foods cannot grow in the environment of the US. For example, bananas, coffee beans, avocados, and a few more. Where you decide to settle usually benefits your living styles in a way. So if you were a farmer you would try to pick a place with good soil and lots of open space for crops. If the climate in the area you chose to grow stuff is always cold and bad weather for ur plants, then it would impact your living situation in a way.

Map game screenshots

Getting our tests back !!

Today in human geo we got our Message to Garcia and excellence tests back and reviewed them. I actually did really good on it and got a 102 overall because of the bonus question. I also got 20/20 on both of my essays and I was really proud of them. As I was taking the test the multiple choice was super easy so i'm glad I got them all right. I made a quizlet to help me remember most of the info on the test and it was really easy to recall all of it. I like how on the test Mr. Schick put facebook like icon stamps on mine. Rachel put me in her blog today about how I did really good on my test and that was really sweet of her. I also found out from Mr. Schick that I was the only one in the superhuman geo class to get over 100 which was exciting.

Mercator Projection v. Gall-Peters Projection Maps

The most popular version is the Mercator projection, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It's been widely used for centuries, including today in various forms by Google Maps and many other online services. This map has imaginary lines that cut all meridians at the same angle, that makes it a useful tool for navigation. Because the Earth is roughly spherical, every flat map distorts our planet one way or another. Despite its benefits, the Mercator projection drastically distorts the size and shape of objects approaching the poles. A few things wrong with this map is the fact that it shows that Greenland is roughly the same size of Africa, but in reality can fit inside Africa about 14 times. Another misconception of the mercator is that it makes Antartica look like it dwarfs all the continents. In reality it looks like the second - smallest continent. The Gall-Peters Projection map makes seeing the relative size of places much easier.  this version comes closer to showing that what we percieve as land mass in the "South" is nearly twice as big as the "North"— 38.6 million square miles compared to 18.9 million square miles. The Mercator, however, makes the North look much larger.