Monday, November 26, 2012

Lab 7: Census 2000/2010


Percent of Black Population:
     Through this map one can see that the higher percentage of African-American population is along the coasts of the U.S.. If one compares both coasts the south-eastern part is actually the area with the highest percent population of of African-Americans. It is interesting to see that this is the area with the highest population of African -Americans because it is also the area that was known for having slaves till the civil war occurred.

Percent of Asian Population:
     On the "Percent of Asian Population" map one can see that the highest population of Asian-Americans are located on the western coast of the United States. One can infer that this is because the western coast is a closer to Asia, just across the Pacific. It is easier for Asians to immigrate to the western coast of the U.S. than to travel around the world across Euro-Asia, Europe, and the Atlantic ocean in order to get to America.

Percent of Other Population:
     The "Percent of Other Race Population" map shows that the most diverse places tend to be along the coast but more the west than the east side. From the west coast diversity of races actually extends inland somewhat more. The east coast is not as diverse except along the very edges and pretty much the whole of Florida. I think this is because immigration comes in at the borders of a country and also it's where international commerce occurs giving room to bring people of many races together.


I think I prefer using GIS in this context because it speaks about life at a certain place. Just from this one can infer things about cultural affairs, economic situations around these pointed areas, or can compare to historic events to present day events. From this one can take as much from it as needed and even add more data to complement what the maps they already have.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

lab 6: DEMs in ArcGIS

     The area I chose to show was of San Diego County. The reason I chose it was because I am from San Diego and I was curious to see the difference in elevations around the county. It is a GCS North American 1983 projection. The extent of the map is listed as below:

Extent of my map:
  • Left: -117.326111112028
  • Top: 32.9280555545539
  • Bottom: 32.5208333323043
  • Right: -116.576944445311




Monday, November 12, 2012

Lab 5

how many miles separate Washington, D.C. and Afghanistan when crossing the Atlantic?
      Line measurement (Geodesic)
Segment: 100.364186 Decimal Degrees
Length: 100.364186 Decimal Degrees
       Line measurement (Loxodrome)
Segment: 117.407591 Decimal Degrees
Length: 117.407591 Decimal Degrees
       Line measurement (Great Elliptic)
Segment: 100.364268 Decimal Degrees
Length: 100.364268 Decimal Degrees

conformal
- mercator
Line measurement (Planar)
Length: 10,121.434879 Miles

Line measurement (Geodesic)
Segment: 6,934.478105 Miles
Length: 6,934.478105 Miles

-stereographic
Line measurement (Geodesic)
Segment: 6,934.478105 Miles
Length: 6,934.478105 Miles

Line measurement (Planar)
Segment: 9,878.038997 Miles
Length: 9,878.038997 Miles

equal area
-cylindrical equal area
-Eckert IV


     There are so many types of map projections. It can be confusing deciding which to use because it all depends on what will help answer one's questions most appropriately. It was kind of interesting to see how many options of map projections there are. Some can be more helpful than others. For example, I realized that a reason for why the mercator map is more commonly used is because it both is conformal and equidistant. This can be an advantage because one can acquire more information from a single map rather than having to deal with two or three or more maps simultaneously.
     It was kind of confusing when trying to figure out the maps and how to measure from Kabul to Washington DC. Mostly because it was unclear that to measure in miles the settings where to be changed in the tool settings not the data frame settings.