GPS 101 Lisa Buck West Blocton High School West Blocton, Alabama 33 o 06’ 48’’ N 87 o 07’ 44’’ W

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What is a GPS How Do You Use It And What Do You Do With It?

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A GPS is a … Electronic instrument to determine a location based on information it receives from satellites Stands for “Global Positioning System” Is the electronic replacement for compasses in determining location Is the electronic replacement for astronomy in determining location

Various Types of GPSs

The Recreational GPS  When powered on will take several minutes to “lock onto” satellites. These satellites are 11,000 miles in orbit  Used to find Longitude and Latitude  To map data  To make maps  To find the car  To find a prize But for a variety of reasons

What To Do Math – Finding Areas, Measuring Distances History – Studying Columbus or Lewis & Clark Geography

Longitude and Latitude

Trade Winds - About thirty degrees north & south of equator. Prevailing Westerlies - Between thirty & sixty degrees latitude, winds that move toward poles appear to curve to east. Winds are named from direction they originate. Easterlies - About sixty degrees latitude (both hemispheres) prevailing westerlies join with polar easterlies to reduce upward motion. Polar easterlies form when atmosphere over the poles cools. Cool air sinks & spreads over surface. As air flows away from poles, is turned to the west by Coriolis effect. Global Wind Patterns

Trade Winds miles, in 36 days, in 1492

Figuring the Lines of Longitude

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Longitude & Latitude of the U.S.

Now That You’re Worldly, You Need To Run The Numbers

Reading A GPS 3 Formats  hemisphere degrees, minutes, seconds  hemisphere degrees, minutes  hemisphere degrees hemisphere degrees, minutes, seconds 33 07’ 03”N 87 07’ 02” W 33 o 07’ 03”N 87 o 07’ 02” W hemisphere degrees, minutes 33 07’ 043”N 87 07’ 02”W 33 o 07’ 043”N 87 o 07’ 02”W hemisphere degrees N W o N o W

Conversions  miles between latitude lines  miles between 1 degree of latitude  1.15 miles between minutes .019 miles between seconds; which equals100 feet and 3.5 inches.

However it’s a Sliding Scale  At 38 degrees North latitude  one degree of latitude equals approximately 364,000 ft (69 miles), one minute equals 6068 ft (1.15 miles), one-second equals 101 ft.  one-degree of longitude equals 288,200 ft (54.6 miles), one minute equals 4800 ft (0.91 mile), and one second equals 80 ft.

I Need You To Cosign Cosine  Open the calculator in Windows  (Start  Programs  Accessories  Calculator)  Click on View & Scientific  Choose Decimal and Degrees  Type in known latitude  Click the Cosine Key (cos)  Multiply answer by 69

Ideas  Mapping to figure area  Solving problems to get the co- ordinates to find a geocach  Tracing Expeditions trails/pages/ponyexp1.htm

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