Sun, Mar 22 2009 - Map Reading 101 (View Original Event Details)

Event Coordinator(s): Alison, Erik S
Participants:YiYa, Angie, Erik S, Teresa N, Grace, christine kong, Val N, Alison, Kim Y, Arlene, Lan, Victor, Laura, LP, Sun D, Beki Y, Steve A, Linda

Write Up:
'On the Interference of Modern Buildings on the Operation of a Map-Reading Compass' or 'Map Reading 101'
Erik very kindly agreed to come along on this event (even though he knows this stuff) so we were treated to the use of the very comfortable and well-equipped facilities at Hewlett-Packard's offices in Mississauga.
A very patient group of TOCers graciously put up with a tedious introduction to the history of maps, map projections, Universal Transverse Mercator, false eastings and scalar grids before we got down to the good stuff.
The section on working with coordinates flummoxed one or two of the group on the coordinate plotting activity - read x before y - and the activity on navigating around a city confused more members - the American way of numbering buildings within blocks was new to quite a few people - but everyone got it first time when they had to locate objects on the Bruce Trail Kelso map.
Measuring distance was easy once everyone was comfortable with coordinates, although it became apparent to everyone of the need to accurately follow curved paths since a 'quick and dirty' reading can significantly alter the measurement.
Reading accurate bearings threw the whole group, instructor included! Who knew that there is sufficient iron in rebar, and in the electrical and communication connection points in a modern conference room to affect a compass needle, making it difficult to get an accurate take on North? After two or three tries, we agreed to allow the compass/building combination to determine North, and to take all readings relative to that baseline. Once we factored in the building interference, everyone quickly figured out the steps needed to establish north, orient a map to north, and to take bearings from one location to another on the map. The only thing we didn't do was to try this in the field, which we'll save for another session...
The final section of the afternoon focussed on relief and how to interpret contours. The group threw themselves into this enthusiastically and quickly got a handle on the way to match the representation shown by the contour lines on the map with what is actually seen on the ground. Members left the session with a complex set of contours and ground images to match up...
Many thanks to all participants for their patience and good humour. It was fun to put this session together, and hopefully, everyone left with more confidence in their ability to orient themselves when out on TOC events.



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