Geography & Latitude

Geography is the study of where things are. A map is a two-dimensional or flat-scale model of the Earth's surface. Map-making is called cartography. Maps serve two purposes : to show absolute and relative location, and to act as a communications tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features. Latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of point on the Earth's surface. It is measured in imaginary lines that run parallel to the equator. They never cross each other and get shorter towards the poles. The equator is measured as (0 degrees N/S). That is what we learned today.

Situation

Today we actually talked about situation. It’s where something is located relative to another place. Situation helps people when they are trying to describe how to get somewhere to someone else while talking on the phone. If your asking where a certain place is you can tell them a big landmark to look for so that they can find the place. Situation is very important for people to understand because if we didn’t we would all be lost trying to find our destination. If we had a huge power outage around the world and no one could use their phones or gps than we could talk to each other face to face  and have to describe a place someone is trying to get to. That’s why we use situation.

Site and Situation

Today we talked about site. Site is the physical character of a place. It’s how geographers describe the location of a place. Important characteristics of site include : water sources, climate, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation. Good site qualities depend on the cultural values of each individual person. Situation was listed after site. Situation is the location of a place relative to other places. It helps us find an unfamiliar place in relation to another place. It also helps us understand the importance of the location of a place. My house doesn’t have that many unique characteristics. It’s just a simple house in a neighborhood. It has a play-set in the backyard and a tree in the front yard. I think site and situation are important for not just for geographers but also regular people to describe places to others.

Map Games

Reviewing Our Test

Today, we reviewed our test. I got a 98 out of 100. The questions I got wrong were the one about the polis and the one about the government revolts. I must have skimmed through the test and not seen the part that said "other than the United States" because I put down the United States as one of the answers. The rest of the test, however, I got right. I did really well on the essay questions. I'm proud of myself because I thought I was going to do a lot worse. All we did today was review our test so it got a little boring in class. We also went over how exams worked in December. Class today was pretty uneventful and I was still tired because it was in the morning. I will make sure to keep my test in a safe place to study for when exams come around.  

Mercator Map VS Peters Map

There are two maps that we have been learning about. The Mercator Map and the Peters Map. The more realistic map is the Peters Map. It shows the countries more proportionate to their actual size. In order for the flat map to accurately show the round Earth it distorts the shapes of the continents. The person who created the map was Arno Peters. He presented it to people and told them that it was superior compared to the Mercator Map. The Peters Map increases the size of each continent the closer they are to the equator. The continents that are closer to the equator on the Mercator map are smaller so they seem less important compared to the other countries. Next is the Mercator Map. It was created and presented by Gerardus Mercator before the Peters Map was invented. It became the standard map for navigation because it showed how to get places in straight lines. Sailors liked this map because it was easy to use a compass with it to get where they were going with the least amount of difficulty. The Mercator Map makes land far away from the equator larger which is because the scale on it is constant. Land like Greenland and Antartica seem larger than they actually are. Mercator map's also have topography and the Peters Map doesn't.

The only map I've ever seen is the Mercator Map. I didn't even know that there were other maps that showed the world in different ways. I think that the Peters World Map shows the world in a more real way but I like the Mercator Map better. It could be because it's the only map I've ever known but I think it's great. I don't really look at maps that often anyway but when I do its always a Mercator Map. Different maps show different things so I think it all depends on what you're looking for at the moment.  

Maps

Today, we looked at three different maps. The first one was used for transportation. It had cities and towns marked and also roads, like interstates. It also had topography, where you could see the different elevations. The second map was of the whole world and was called a Mercator Map. It’s the map that most people look at but it’s not that accurate. It also had topography. The third map was called Peters World Map and it is the most accurate. All of the continents sizes are proprtionate to the real thing. It’s the closet map to the reality. If you flip a map upside down it’s still the same map. It still has everything the other map is just upside down.