Jump to content

Canadian Geopub Quiz


Couparangus

Recommended Posts

Sorry about the delay ! But here is the next pub question!

When standing at the 'North Pole', what choice of 'basic directions' (no fractional directions) do you have, to move away from the pole ?

 

South?

 

Sorry Dano - You have to think outside the box.

 

Oh, *that* box!

 

Two: Straight forward (which would be South), or straight up.

Link to comment

OK, Here ya go...

 

A Nautical mile is standardized as 6000 feet, 200 yards, or 1852 and change metres (or meters, if you prefer).

 

What is the actual definition of a nautical mile? And to show that I'm a real sport, I'll even let you assume that the Earth is a perfect sphere... :laughing:

 

Phil/ve1bvd

Link to comment

Dano said, "Two: Straight forward (which would be South), or straight up."

 

OK, what about down, assuming you came on a submarine? Now THAT'S outside the box!

 

Nah, that's the box itself which in this case is the whole planet. :laughing:

 

The pole does run through the planet, and once it leaves the surface it spreads out (assuming we are talking about the magnetic field). So, I would tend to agree (somewhat) with 2h2g... while perhaps not moving closer to the pole, going down would not be moving away from it.

 

Good question, this was.

Link to comment

OK, Here ya go...

 

A Nautical mile is standardized as 6000 feet, 200 yards, or 1852 and change metres (or meters, if you prefer).

 

What is the actual definition of a nautical mile? And to show that I'm a real sport, I'll even let you assume that the Earth is a perfect sphere... :laughing:

 

Phil/ve1bvd

 

One minute of arc (1/60th of a degree).

 

I didn't know this when the question was asked, and didn't look it up. I just used the number you gave (1852m) and divided it into the circumference of the earth at the equator, got a weird number, then tried dividing that by 360. The answer came to 60, which doesn't look like a coincidence to me!

Link to comment

OK, Dano, you got it.

 

Because the Earth is NOT a perfect sphere, the minute of arc is measured at the equator form the centre of curvature.

 

In rebuttal to 2h2g, I think that the poles are at the surface of the earth, so submerging at the North pole would be moving away from it, no?

 

Cheers,

 

Phil/ve1bvd

Link to comment

OK, Dano, you got it.

 

Because the Earth is NOT a perfect sphere, the minute of arc is measured at the equator form the centre of curvature.

 

In rebuttal to 2h2g, I think that the poles are at the surface of the earth, so submerging at the North pole would be moving away from it, no?

 

Cheers,

 

Phil/ve1bvd

 

Not according to the Russians.

Link to comment

The pole is on the sea floor. Ice is not earth! It can melt, and it moves.

 

Also, in 50 years or so there won't be many ice left over the North Pole... But the pole must be somewhere (the sea floor).

 

I would say the pole is actually on the surface (on the ice). Yes the ice moves, so it is "the pole" for the finite time that the plag is placed. Water/ice is the surface of the planet as well as rock. I could argue that trees and muggles also make up the surface of the earth too!

Link to comment

next question!!

 

Russia claims that the north pole is theirs because the ______ ridge is part of the eurasiatic plate!

 

What is the name of the ridge, and WHY are the Russians wrong?

 

Isn't the north pole in the North American tectonic plate? Therefore whatever the Russians claim would be false, regardless of the name of that ridge, because the North American Plate is not part of the Eurasian plate..

Link to comment

"Boxing the compass" would be doing what, exactly?

 

Going back to my cadet days, boxing the compass means to recite the 32 points of the compass, beginning with North and going clockwise. I was going to try and do it, but I can't remember the last 16 points, East by North, etc. Anyway, each point is 11-1/4 degrees, and can be further subdivided into quarter points, which gives pretty good accuracy, certainly enough to get from A to B. You'd have to be a pretty good steersman to be able to hold a sailing vessel to a quarter point of the compass...

 

cheers,

 

Phil/ve1bvd

Link to comment

"Boxing the compass" would be doing what, exactly?

 

Going back to my cadet days, boxing the compass means to recite the 32 points of the compass, beginning with North and going clockwise. I was going to try and do it, but I can't remember the last 16 points, East by North, etc. Anyway, each point is 11-1/4 degrees, and can be further subdivided into quarter points, which gives pretty good accuracy, certainly enough to get from A to B. You'd have to be a pretty good steersman to be able to hold a sailing vessel to a quarter point of the compass...

 

cheers,

 

Phil/ve1bvd

 

Correctamundo! Take 'er away...

Link to comment

In terms of terrestrial navigation, what is the difference between a great circle and a small circle? Please be specific; "one is big and the other is little" doesn't cut it!

 

One is a great way of navigating, the other is a disappointment to their parents, can barely find their way down the road, and is having problems with the canadian revenue agency.

Link to comment

OK, here's another quickie...

 

In terms of terrestrial navigation, what is the difference between a great circle and a small circle? Please be specific; "one is big and the other is little" doesn't cut it!

 

Phil/ve1bvd

 

Sounds like old Native American talk for the sun and the moon, although I'm not so sure one would want to use the moon for navigation. Or maybe it depends on how much longer one leg is then the other: a greater difference would mean you'd walk around in bigger circles. <_<

Link to comment

Oh dear me, think Quigley think.

 

If I recall correctly a great circle goes through the center of the earth. Or better put the center of the circle is also the center of the earth.

 

And a small circle... doesn't :laughing:

 

OK, Quigley, you got it! A great circle is one drawn upon the surface of the earth whose plane passes through the centre of the earth. A small circle is any other circle drawn upon the surface of the earth.

 

Phil/ve1bvd

Link to comment

Well I'll ask a question involving what I'm doing in one of my classes this week.

 

The Sinusoidal projection preserves this and distorts that.

What are the this and that?

 

(answer on p334 of the Getting to know ArcGIS text :P )

We've been absent for a while... but we decided to pop in for a moment :)

 

Mr. LS says...

 

This/preserves = longitude

That/distorts = latitude

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...