Eric Fitterling

• This is a map Transverse Mercator projection with the meridian at -90° W longitude.
• In this projection the shape of the landmasses is preserved while distance and area are distorted.

• This is a Cylindrical Equal Area projection and the meridain here is at 0° the Prime Meridian.
• In this projection the area of the land masses is preserved and the shapes and distances are distorted.

• This is an Azimuthal Equidistant projection with the origin at the North Pole.
• In this projection the distance is preserved while the shapes and areas are distorted.

My favorite map projection is the Transverse mercator because it preserves the shape of the world and I personally have always looked at this type of map all my life so it satisfies my tastes.

Geographic Coordinates:

The place name on the maps shown above represent the location of my home town. The geographic coordinates of my home town are:

Latitude: 40° 19' 29″N, Longitude: 76° 1' 21″W

The Geographic Coordinate System is a measurment system designed as if the Earth had a giant protractor within it. The center of it is at the center of the earth and as you go North or South from the equator anywhere on the earth the angle goes up. Likewise as you move East or North from the prime meridian the angle increases. So basically points on the earth are measured by what angles you have moved from the equator and prime meridian.

UTM Coordinates:

The UTM coordianates (NAD83) of my home town are:

Easting: 413143.47490799206 meters Northing: 4464301.034108438 meters, Zone 18

The UTM coordinate system is similar to a regular graph used in math. The zone is just which graph you are using. There are 60 graphs side by side along the whole globe and my home town happens to be in the 18th one. From there you just go from the origin of that map and count up and over where exactly the point is. The measurements are taken in regular old units of measure, meters.

NAD83 is just the projection used in the UTM coordinate system and it is based off of the measurements of the Earth taken in 1980 while the old projection using NAD27 was a projection made in 1927. That projection was made off of the measurements of the Earth found in 1866 so the NAD83 is definately more accurate because the measurment used in this projection were found by satellite.

State Plane Coordinates:

The State Plane coordinates (NAD83) of my home town are:

Easting: 111544.833 meters Northing: 746777.582 meters, Zone: PA South (3702)

The State Plane coordinates is the same as UTM in that is is basically a giant graph. In this case though each state is broken up into smaller graphs and these graphs are not broken up evenly. In my case my home city is in the South Pa graph so that is where the graph is.

In terms of which system is the best or worst I would have to say that the worst is the Geographic coordinate system because it is impossible to actually measure the angles and you cannot find a place by knowing how many degrees away you are. The State Plane system is probably the best beating the UTM system by a small amount just because the numbers don't get as big. In the State Plane system the origins are a lot closer to where the location is so the distance in meters is smaller and thus easier to handle and comprehend. Overall it is just easier in general to find a location by finding one reference point and going this far North and that far West and you are right there and that is why the State Plane method is the best.

Sources:

Baxter, Ryan (2006) Interactive Album of Map Projections http://projections.mgis.psu.edu Accessed 26 September 2007.

National Geodetic Survey (2002) SPC Utilities. http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/TOOLS/spc.html Accessed 01 October 2007.

Taylor, Charles L. (2003) Geographic/UTM Coordinate Converter. http://home.hiwaay.net/~taylorc/toolbox/geography/geoutm.html Accessed 26 September 2007.