Appleseeds articles from November 2005

Appleseeds archives from November 2005

Mapping our world.
November 1, 2005... Can you imagine how much time and patience it would take to carve a map onto a rock? That is just how the first maps were made about 40,000 years ago. Ancient people made maps to show the best places to hunt and find nuts and berries. They also...

News of our changing world.(new changes made in atlas)
November 1, 2005... Amazing fact: The latest Atlas of the World published by the National Geographic Society includes 17,000 changes from the atlas printed only five years earlier. Yes, you read right: 17,000 changes! 17,000 changes fit into two basic groups:...

Mapmaker on the go.(Tay Vaughan)(Interview)
November 1, 2005... MEET CARTOGRAPHER TAY VAUGHAN Maps, maps, and more maps! There are globes, atlases, state maps, street maps, and gazetteers. Maps can be physical, political, cosmological, or topographic. (Check out the meaning of those last two terms in...

Which end is up?(design of maps)
November 1, 2005... When you look at a map, you probably assume that north should be at the top. Did you ever wonder why? After all, Earth is a sphere with no top or bottom. If you spin a ball and wait for it to stop, any point on it can end up on top. So how do...

Orienteering: the mapping sport.
November 1, 2005... Did you know that map reading can be a sport? It's called orienteering. It's also called the "thinking sport" and "cunning running"; you must use your mind as well as your body to find your way through an unknown area with just a map and a...

Orientering from here to there.
November 1, 2005... Now it's your turn to try orienteering. Follow the directions below to navigate through the park on the next page. Directions: 1 Orient yourself to the map. This means find north, read the map legend, and look at the features on the...

Clocking longitude: scrape. Crack.(seaworthy clock used for travelling by the sailors)
November 1, 2005... Sailors don't like those sounds--the sounds of a ship hitting land. But before 1761, many sailors were shipwrecked, or just plain lost, because they didn't know their longitude. For centuries, sailors had had instruments that allowed them...

It's a matter of degree.(division of globe into different sections)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Have you ever seen a photograph of our planet Earth taken from outer space? Some people say Earth looks like a "big blue marble." Certainly, it does not have lines drawn all over it! When you look at a globe, however, you see lines drawn...

From here to (almost) anywhere.(MapQuest.Com Inc.)
November 1, 2005... Since long before you were born, the people at the MapQuest company have been helping folks get where they want to go. Of course, it hasn't always been called MapQuest. In 1967, that name would have sounded very strange. Back then, they were...

Mapping Mars: robots on the red planet.(Spirit and Opportunity)
November 1, 2005... On January 3, 2004, a package dropped out of space, opened a parachute, and landed on the planet Mars. It had left Earth seven months earlier and traveled more than 300 million miles. It bounced 28 times before finally coming to a stop. Then...

GPS: talking with satellites.(global positioning system)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Throw out your treasure maps and start talking with satellites! To find hidden treasure in 2005, you'll need to use the Global Positioning System (GPS). Cell phone-size GPS receivers pick up microwave signals from 24 special satellites in orbit...

A whale of a good map!(global positioning system used for whale search)
November 1, 2005... From centuries of whale hunting and whale watching, people have a good idea when and where to find whales. But to learn where whales go from day to day or hour to hour, scientists have turned to modern technology. Professional whale watchers...

Marvelous geo facts.
November 1, 2005... * The oldest existing map was made about 4,500 years ago in ancient Babylonia (present-day day). It shows a settlement in a mountain-lined river valley. * More than 2,500 years ago, the Greek mathematician Pythagoras decided that the Earth...