Maps Are Fun (2nd Ed)

[Music] my name is Donaldson and I'm a cartographer that means I make maps one Saturday afternoon I invited two of my neighbors Ronnie and his young friend dick to visit me I knew they were having trouble making a map Ronnie was going on a camping trip with his family and dick was going to deliver papers for him but he couldn't understand the map Ronnie had made of his paper route I asked them into my work room to talk over their problem I had moved a sand table into the room so we could make a model of Ronnie's neighborhood then I gave Ronnie a yard stick to measure the table to see how much room we had for laying out a paper root six blocks long and four blocks wide Ronnie measured the table luckily its length was just 6 ft and its width was 4 ft now dick could see that they could make the streets exactly 1T apart then each block would be 1 foot in length that's what is meant by scale here the scale is 1T equals one block everything on the map will be drawn to scale then I showed Ronnie some models we could use to represent the buildings it wasn't long before the streets and buildings were all in place and the model of his paper route was finished I pointed out that this view of the model was just like an airplane view of a town air views of towns and cities are often often used to help cartographers make maps from such a view high above a city for example an aerial photograph is made from an aerial photograph a map of a whole Community can be drawn at the map Studio where I work we usually make maps of areas much larger than cities or towns here we are making a new map of Pennsylvania much will be done to it before it is finished on a special rotating table called a whirler colors are added to the map in this device each color is made permanent in the places on the map where it belongs and here is the finished map with all the colors and names in place mapmaking is fascinating work as dick and Ronnie were beginning to discover and now that our model was complete and dick could see how the newspaper route went he was eager to get started on the map yet he could see that a map as big as the model would be too large to carry around on a bicycle but the paper I brought over on the drafting table was smaller than the model dick was also worried about how he could keep his directions straight so on the paper Ronnie marked this direction North he knew which direction was North on the model because the railroad station was at the North End of his paper route but to use this small paper for a map of the route Ronnie realized that they would have to change the scale when they had made the model they had let one foot equal one block now perhaps they could use a different scale and let a few inches equal one block after Ronnie measured the paper for the map he decided that they could use this scale 3 in equal one block so the blocks which were 12 in Long on the model would be only 3 in Long on the map 1/4 as much now Ronnie wondered if it was all right to use a little square like this to stand for a house I said that would be a good symbol for his map a legend explains the lines and symbols that are used the legend on Ronnie's map would help dick read it all the houses were put into scale one in on the map for every 4 in on the model then came the railroad Depot and the tracks this is the way Ronnie showed the railroad tracks a line with little s across it like railroad ties then Ronnie added the symbol for railroad tracks to the legend he decided to use an X as his symbol to show the houses where papers were to be delivered dick could easily read this map then Ronnie marked the paper route to the place where it crossed a bridge I showed them the symbol often used for Bridges then I showed them the symbol usually used for a church a square like a house with a cross on top of it and the symbol for a school a square with a flag then I pointed out that maps are really a kind of writing which uses lines and symbols to show things a map tells anyone who can read it a great deal about the area it represents the legend helps us to read a particular map it explains the meaning of the symbols that are used in the map Ronnie put in the street names completed the legend and the newspaper route and the map was ready dick or anyone who knew how to read maps could use it Ronnie noticed a map of the United States on the wall and he said he'd show dick where he and his family were going camping they were going to Leadville in Colorado but Leadville wasn't on the map perhaps it was too small a town I suggested that Ronnie try a different map a more complete map of Colorado in an atlas this kind of map has a grid made of these vertical lines and these horizontal lines to find Leadville we first looked it up in the index which is arranged alphabetically Leadville Colorado page 118 at G4 on the map on page 118 Ronnie found G along the top of the map and then four along the side of the map he followed across on four and down on G until his fingers met and there was Leadville I explained that nearly every map has some sort of cross lines for locating things on it now Dick had a question why are the states in different colors he knew that Colorado isn't really Orange when you travel along a highway and cross a state line the land looks just the same on both sides unless there's a sign you don't know when you go from one state to another on a map color is sometimes used to help indicate where one state ends and another begins dick noticed how the color blue shows lakes rivers and oceans then I showed them another map which uses color in a different way this is a physical map which shows the elevation or height of the land each color represents a different height here the legend explains the exact height each color or shade represents then I showed the boys a group of maps of the United States each telling a different story the stories were easy to figure out when you use the legend as a guide the other thing that helps you read a map besides its Legend is its scale we can show any area on any size paper just by using a larger or smaller scale whether it's a map of a continent or a hemisphere or even the whole world Legend and scale are the keys that unlock the story of any map just as they explain the story of the boy map the story of where dick is to deliver papers while Ronnie is on his [Music] vacation