Assignment One - Ed's Answers

I'm putting my answers to assignment one up here for discussion and for future reference (i.e., the final exam)...please let me know if I made a mistake or if your correct answers are different.  I received a 92 as a grade.  I received this grade because the last question in step 8 (changing the metadata) and the last question in step 9 (changing the legend name) were not saved.  During the re-try, this has been corrected.

(Step 1) Start ArcMap and open the map document "Assign1" in the REAE_Assignments/Assign1 folder of the class drive.

• How many layers are in the map?
• Four layers:
• Cities;
• Roads;
• Lakes; and
• States
• Which layer is on top of all the layers?
• The "Cities" layer is above all layers.
• What is the order of the layers? (Begin with the topmost layer)
• Cities;
• Roads;
• Lakes; and
• States.

(Step 2) Move the layer "Cities" to the position after the layer "States".

• What do you see?
• The points corresponding to the "Cities" disappeared. Only the features corresponding to "Roads", "Lakes", and "States" are now visible.
• Why?
• ArcMap draws the map according to the order of the layers, from the bottom to the topmost layer. Thus, ArcMap drew the cities, then the states, then the lakes, adn finally the roads. The states layer completely covered up the cities layer and thus the points corresponding to the cities are not visible.

(Step 3) View the properties of the layers.

• Where are the data located?
• The data is located on teh class drive (z:\).
• Write the path names.
• Roads data located on: z:\REAE5327_Assignments\Assign1\ROADS.shp
• Roads data located on: z:\REAE5327_Assignments\Assign1\LAKES.shp
• Roads data located on: z:\REAE5327_Assignments\Assign1\STATES.shp
• Roads data located on: z:\REAE5327_Assignments\Assign1\CITIES.shp

(Step 4)  Identify objects using the "Identify" tool.

• What is the population of Texas in 1990?
• 16,986,510 Texans.
• What is the population of Texas in 1999?
• 20,127,338 Texans
• What is the name of the lake located near the border of Texas and Oklahoma?
• Lake Texoma

(Step 5)  View map in different scales.

• As you zoom in a view, what happens to the scale?
• The denominator gets smaller, hence the scale gets larger.
• After you zoon out, what happens to the scale?
• The denominator gets bigger, hence the scale gets smaller.
• What does the scale ratio represent?
• The scale ratio is the relationship between the size of features on a map and the size of the corresponding places in the world.  If the scale of a map is 1:10,000; then the features on the map are 10,000 times smaller than their actual size.
• There are several ways to zoom.  What are the ways?
• Select the "zoom in" tool [looks like a magnifying glass with a plus (+) sign in the middle of the glass], then draw an area around the point of interest which you would like to maginfy.
• Select the "zoom out" tool [looks like a magnifying glass with a minus (-) sign in the middle of the glass], then draw an area around the point of interest which you would like to shrink.
• Select the "fixed zoom in" tool [looks like four arrows pointed towards an imaginary center point].  This will maginfy the center of the map slightly.
• Select the "fixed zoom out" tool [looks like four arrows ponted away from an imaginary center point].  This will shrink the center of the map slightly.
• Manually edit the left side of the scale ratio number in the scale ratio window itself.
• Select the "Full Extent" tool [looks like a small planet Earth].  This will shrink the map so taht the entire map is shown on the screen.
• If your mouse has a scrolling wheel between the left and right mouse buttons, simply rolling this scrolling wheel will instantaneously zoom in (scroll away from you) or zoom out (scroll towards you).
• All these tools can be accessed, additionally, by right-clicking on the map and selecting the appropriate tool.
• Describe the spatial pattern of the cities in the United States.
• If you select all but the states layer, one can clearly observe the majority of the cities in teh United States are located near bodies of water [along the coastlines, along the great lakes, and along major bodies of water (The Great Salt Lake in Utah)] and along, and at the intersection of, major highways (for example, Dallas/Fort Worth TX; St. Louise MO, etc)].

(Step 6)  Select two objects and measure the distance between the two.

• What is the distance between New York and Los Angeles?
• 2,476.626579 Miles

(Step 7)  Search and copy files using ArcCatalog.

• Search the file "mysates.shp" from the class drive.
• Where is the file located?
• z:\GTKArcGIS\Chapter20\MyData\mystates.shp
• Once you find the file, copy it from the class drive to your diskette.
• Rename the file to "US_States".

(Step 8)  Find information about the file "US_States" on your diskette and edit the metadata of the file using ArcCatalog.

• What is the coordinate system of the file?
• Horizontal Coordinate System: Geographic coordinate system name: GCS_North_American_1983
• How many features are in the file?
• 51
• What do you find about the attributes of "State_Name", "POP1990", and "POP_SQMI"?
• "State_Name" has a data type of "String" and a width of "25".
• "POP1990" has a data type of "Number" and a width of "10".
• "POP_SQMI" has a data type of "Number" and a width of "5".
• Change the descriptions of "Keywords", "Abstract", and "Purpose".

(Step 9)  Create a map document using ArcMap.

• Open and empty map in ArcMap.
• Add the layer "US_States".
• Display the layer by the values of the field "state_names".
• Change the layer name to "United States".
• Change the legend name to "State Names".

(Step 10)  Save the map docuement to your diskette.