Lab 1B - Topo Map Answers

1. Beverly Hills Quadrangle
2. NW - Canoga Park; N - Van Nuys; NE - Burbank; W - Topanga; E - Hollywood; SW - Blank (Pacific Ocean); S - Venice; SE - Inglewood
3. 1995
4. What datum was used to create your map?
5. North American Datum of 1927
6. At the above scale, answer the following:
a) 1200 meters
b) 1.894
c) 2.64
d) 12.5
7. 20 feet
8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/minutes/seconds and
decimal degrees of:
a) 34 deg 4' 30" N, 118 deg 26' 0" W
b) 34 deg 0' 30" N, 118 deg 30' 0" W
c) 34 deg 6' 0" N, 118 deg 24' 30" W
9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:
a) 560 feet
b) 140 feet
c) 700 - 900 feet depending on where in the park
10. Zone 11
11. 11N 361500 3762950
12. 1,000,000
13.

14. 14 deg East
15. South
16. UCLA Campus:

Lab 1, Map #3

For my final map, I wanted to find a Reference Map, so I searched for "Map of Western United States" to commemorate my journey from College Station, Texas to Los Angeles, California. I found this nice historical map from 1897 from the United States Digital Map Library (http://usgwarchives.net/maps/usa/usmaps/west1897.jpg). This map stood out to me amongst the field of modern maps my search yielded because of several features:

#1) On both the left and right borders, you find the names of Asian and European/African places which fall along the same latitudes depicted on this map. This feature would give foreign viewers a better sense of where they are compared to their homeland, and gives domestic viewers a better sense of where they fall in relation to the rest of the planet. This is an interesting alternative to the use of an inset to show a small world map with a box over the Western US to show the borders of this map.

2) Another interesting feature is this map still lists longitude under both the old convention (a country's capitol) and the standard of Greenwich.

3) Finally, I enjoyed seeing a few features which were important to a 19th Century cartographer, like "Gold Mines" and old Forts.

Lab 1, Map #2

This map was found by doing a Google search for "Map of College Football Teams." I chose this map from http://southerncollegesports.com/football_location_map2.html because I like college football and this map depicts all Division 1 programs, and this happens to be a map I had not seen before. This map's strength is showing not only where each college exists, but also what conference each team represents through the use of color-coded labeling.

But I also chose this map because of its numerous shortcomings. Obviously, it was created without the use of proper mapping tools/software (looks like an MS Paint product) and without any regard for accuracy. Being familiar with Texas geography, I can find clear faults with the placement of several of the teams in that state. Clearly, it is designed by a College Football fan, for College Football fans, and it's an assumption on the part of the creator that his viewers will come with a knowledge of each team's abbreviation. Even so, the author of this map does a poor job of ensuring that his labels can clearly be read. This is particularly a problem in the Mid-West, where the Big Ten and MAC teams are clustered. Finally, it's notable that this map shows a bias in its coloring. The map was presumably authored by a Southerner, and as such, the author saw it fit to depict the PAC-10 teams in the color pink - which may seem innocuous to a casual viewer, but I believe it was more than likely a direct jab at the West Coast style of football.

Lab 1, Map #1

This map by Charles Joseph Minard was the first map I wanted to post for this assignment because it is an outstanding example of depicting statistical information spatially. I found this particular image on the Wikipedia entry for Charles Joseph Minard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joseph_Minard)

Minard creates this Thematic Map to depict the advance and retreat of Napoleon's Army as it marched into Russia to attempt to take Moscow. The use of different line thicknesses to represent the size of Napoleon's Army allows this map to help the viewer comprehend the staggering troop losses throughout the campaign. I originally saw this map in a book by Edward Tufte (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information) that my wife used for her Communication Studies research last year as she finished her Ph.D (forgive the obligatory spouse-bragging), and I liked the map from the moment I saw it - even though I don't speak any French, nor am I particularly interested in Napoleon. It's a stunning representation of the total loss of Napoleon's Army. (Note the graph on the bottom which shows the temperature at various points along the retreat. I feel cold, too.)