Latitude and longitude

Coverage of latitude and longitude began on Monday with a globe and an introduction to latitude and longitude on the planet earth. This term I did not focus on what is at the prime meridian at North 6° 54' and this would play out as dropping the Ghana angle. This would work well on Thursday as this term the classes did not return to A101 after taking data. Data was analyzed in the field with the aid of the new Tripltek tablet.

Wednesday hide and seek returned to N 06° 54.646' E 158° 09.432' (N 06.910760 E 158.157188) behind the IT shop. 


Reagan, Kamaloni, Alexander, and Sean arrived at the hide at 12:22. The location works to demonstrate the concept without requiring wading through the paddle grass to find me. 


Reagan and Sean used a GPS, Alexander used an app on his phone.


A second group arrived at 12:26 led by Myena and and Fredson. Kiora was also holding a GPS but did not appear to be actively navigating. Joe Scott and Malisa were with this group.


Myena checks the accuracy of her GPS, Malisa in the background


On Thursday I opened with the above diagram and then introduced the laboratory. Note that I have dropped running calculations as to the implied circumference of the earth. The intent of this laboratory remains confusing and mysterious for many students, so I have pulled out the extraneous add-ons such as the implied circumference of the earth at six degrees north and kept the focus on the conversion factor and the distance that 0.001 arcminutes represents. 


I could not provide start coordinates - I had no idea what they would be. Thursday morning saw heavy rain, heavier than anything previously encountered. I knew the walkway from LRC to A was problematic because it wasn't oriented east and west. The walkway from administration to the dining hall, however, is close to an east-west orientation. So the 8:00 class headed down there.

Myena

Upon arrival I determined that I had roughly 170 feet to work with. I decided to attempt measurements every 30 feet as the surveyor's wheel is a three foot circumference wheel. 


The starting coordinate was N 06° 54.545' E 158° 09.515' 


I put together a quick conversion table to obtain the metric measurements.


Then I walked thirty feet and took a photo of the GPS.

Myena entering data directly into Desmos

60 feet

90 feet

120 feet

150 feet

By using the stairs, I obtained 180 feet

180 feet

Analyzing the data in the field

After gathering the data I realized that backing up a few feet would have made 180 feet possible without winding up on the stairs.


In the 11:00 session I could add details to the diagram that I simply did not know at 8:00.


Although the weather was improving, the lawn was a swamp. This led to the decision to rerun the lab along the same stretch of sidewalk.


On my way down I sighted down the sidewalk and found that I could start back one post at the cement access cover to the water pipes.


This would be the starting location.

Rosie-Rita, Fredson, Kiora, Jocela, Reagan, and Joe Scott

The class would start from back here and hit 180 feet just before the stairs to the east. Data analysis was done at tables alongside the sidewalk. 

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