Hillary Fox

Lab #1: Introducing the Fundamentals

QUESTION 1: Where will you find the data for the labs? (Tell the full path.)

The data for the labs can be found in two places.

1.Through the J: drive- By accessing the J drive, you click html (if the isis folder is not available), courses, 2010spring, etc) until the data folder is reached. The full path is: J:\isis\html\courses\2010spring\geog\370\006\students\hfox

  1. Through the M: drive (which requires less steps)- after mapping the M drive, you simply click “M drive”, “students”, “hfox”.

QUESTION 2: Paste a print screen of Set AFS ACL window. Resize if necessary to be sure instructor can read the text of the box.

QUESTION 3: What is the drive letter of your home directory (i.e., your ATN home directory, not your GEOG 370 class directory)? Where do you save your lab reports?

The home directory is the H:\ drive. Lab reports are saved in a subfolder within the ONYEN folder (hfox) of the M:\ drive. The lab must be saved in the subfolder as “lab1”, “lab2”, etc.

QUESTION 4: If you were working on a computer in an ATN lab and wanted to save your work to a location where only you and no one else could see it, where should you save it? (Excluding flash drives.)

The lab should still be stored in the H:\ drive, but be placed in the “private” folder.

QUESTION 5: If you had a webpage at UNC, what would be the URL for your web page?

QUESTION 6: Paste the print screen requested in the trip to San Diego exercise.

QUESTION 7: What is a layer?

A layer is a collection of features that represent real world objects.

QUESTION 8: What is a feature?

A feature is a part of a layer that has a location, a shape, and a symbol.

QUESTION 9: Describe the different between large scale and small scale, including the level of detail and example ratios?

A large scale map covers less area and has more detail whereas a small scale map covers a large area with less detail. An example of a large scale map would be a building plan; an example of a small scale map would be the world map.

QUESTION 10: What are the two views in ArcMap, and what can you do within each one?

The two views are data view and layout view:

  1. Data: allows you to explore, edit, and analyze data; only one data frame can be viewed at a time
  2. Layout view: allows you to arrange data frames and add other map elements (ie title and scale); multiple data frames can be viewed at once

Question 11: List the buttons in the Data Frame Properties Coordinate System window. Give a short description of the function of each button.

Clear, Transformations…, Modify…, Import, New, Add To Favorites

-Clear erases the current coordinate system

-Transformations allows you to convert the data system to a new type of data

-Modify allows you to view/alter the setup of your map (ie the numerical setup of your datum, angular unit, prime meridian)

-Import allows you to select a new data source to impose onto the map

-New allows you to select a new geographic coordinate system or a new projected coordinate system

-Add to favorites allows you to save your map into a folder that can be accessed later

Question 12: Has the shape and appearance of the United States changed? If so, how?

The appearance is slightly smaller and it looks as if the figure was slightly rotated clockwise. Alaska seems to be smaller and more condensed compared the previous projection.

Question 13: List the names and values of the parameters that appear in the Coordinate System tab in Data Frame Properties window for this coordinate system.

-False_Easting: 0.000000

-False_Northing: 0.000000

-Central Meridian: -96.000000

-Standard_Parallel_1: 29.500000

-Standard_Parallel_2: 45.500000

-Latitude_Of_Origin: 35.50000

-Linear Unit: Meter

-GCS_North_American_1983

-Datum: D_North_American_1983

Question 14: Given the appearance of the data now, do you feel that the Albers Equal Area Projection is appropriate for viewing the entire world? Attach and describe the current view.

This projection is not appropriate because it is difficult to place the map of the entire world into one spot on ArcMap where it can all be easily seen at once (ie, things are too spread out and you must scroll all over ArcMap to look at the projection). However, when the map is zoomed out, the image of the countries is distorted (ie, South America looks squished) because the map is in a conic projection.

On the current view, the map is focused around the arctic circle. This causes some regions to appear significantly smaller than they truly are; for example, South America looks significantly smaller and distorted compared to the United States.

**After zooming out:


Question 15: Describe and attach the current ArcMap window

This ArcMap window is in layout view which means that you can look at multiple data frames at the same time. Since all the data frames can be viewed at once (even though they are currently showing the same data), the layers for each data frame can be manipulated. Again, since the ArcMap is in layout view, you could look at the changes in each layer all at the same time.

Question 16: Describe the difference between the four Data Frames: three projected and one unprojected.

-The Mercator projection shows a map of the world with countries depicted in their actual size, relative to one another. Antarctica is projected as a huge landmass on the southern part of the projection.

-The Robinson projection tries to fit the world into an oval shaped map; this makes the size of some countries and regions skewed so that the map can fit the oval shape.

-The Sinusoidal projection makes the world look like diamond; this makes the “water” regions look large around the east and west edges of the projection. This projection also makes the land masses seemed more clustered in the center of the map.

-The GCS North American 1983 map looks like the world is flattened out to fit on a plane. This makes some of the countries and continents looked slightly stretched to the east and west.

Question 17: Choose one layout out of four layouts to make your final map. Put your final map including text, legend, north arrow, scale bar, etc. on your lab report.