Measure Distances on a Map (How to Steps)

Measure Distances on a Map (How to Steps) Maps are useful for more than just directions. They can also help you determine the distance between two (or more) places. The scales on a map can be different types, from words and ratios to pictorial. Decoding the scale is the key to determining your distance. Heres a quick guide on how to measure distances on a map. All youll need is a ruler, some scratch paper, and a pencil.   Heres How Use a ruler to measure the distance between the two places. If the line is quite curved, use a string to determine the distance, and then measure the string.Find the scale for the map youre going to use. It might be a ruler bar scale or a written scale, in words or numbers.If the scale is a word statement (i.e. 1 centimeter equals 1 kilometer) then determine the distance by simply measuring with a ruler.  For example, if the scale says 1 inch 1 mile, then for every inch between the two points, the real distance is that number in miles. If your measurement is 3 5/8 inches, that would be 3.63 miles.If the scale is a representative fraction (and looks like 1/100,000), multiply the distance of the ruler by the denominator, which denotes distance in the ruler units. The units will be listed on the map, such as 1 inch or 1 centimeter. For example, if the map fraction is 1/100,000, the scale says centimeters, and your points are 6 centimeters apart, in real life theyll be 600,000 centime ters apart or 6 kilometers.   If the scale is a ratio (and looks like this 1:100,000), youll multiply the map units by the number following the colon. For example, if you see 1:63,360, that is 1 inch 1 mile on the ground.For a graphic scale, youll need to measure the graphic, for example, white and black bars, to determine how much ruler distance equates to distance in reality. You can either take your ruler measurement of the distance between your two points and place that on the scale to determine real distance, or you can use scratch paper and go from the scale to the map.To use paper, youll place the edge of the sheet next to the scale and make marks where it shows distances, thus transferring the scale to the paper. Then label the marks as to what they mean, in real distance. Finally, youll lay the paper on the map between your two points to determine the real-life distance between them.After youve found out your measurement and compared with the scale, youll convert your units of measurement into the most convenient units for you (i.e., convert 63,360 inches to 1 mile or 600,000 cm to  6 km, as above). Look Out Watch out for maps that have been reproduced and have had their scale changed. A graphic scale will change with the reduction or enlargement, but other scales become wrong. For example, if a map was shrunk down to 75 percent on a copier to make a handout and the scale says that 1 inch on the map is 1 mile, its no longer true; only the original map printed at 100 percent is accurate for that scale.

Be Your Own Ideal Reader

Be Your Own Ideal Reader Be Your Own Ideal Reader Be Your Own Ideal Reader By Michael Our article Your Ideal Reader prompted a response from veteran writer Kilburn Hall, who wrote: There is no â€Å"ideal† reader and if you start trying to write for one specific audience, you’re going to tune out others that might actually be interested in reading your book. How can Mr. Hall can say that? Because, like most successful writers, he is his own ideal reader! Instead of trying to please an imaginary member of a writers market (middle-class men aged 35-65), he is trying to please himself. And like every successful writer, he is single-minded about catering to this ideal reader, which happens to be himself. So his manuscripts satisfy editors, and his books satisfy readers. When you look at it that way, though, its not true that writing for one specific audience will tune out others. If you dont decide who youre writing for, even if its yourself, your writing becomes vague, even useless. A finance article for corporate accountants probably wont help college students cut their expenses. I would say this principle applies to novels as well. If you write an adventure novel because you really like adventure novels, the lovers of adventure novels will perk up, and other readers can at least tell theyre reading the real thing. Writing for specific readers, or a specific purpose, doesnt keep other people from reading your piece, just because you werent thinking about them when you wrote it. Yes, youll tune out some readers if your publisher prints on the cover, To Be Read By Middle Class Women Only, which is why your publisher doesnt do that. But your publisher is very interested in making sure middle class women know when a book is targeted for them. The pastels and flowers on the cover might tune out some middle class men. But if you dont know what youre writing about, youll tune everybody out. One group that Mr. Halls message is especially relevant for, however: aspiring writers who are willing to compromise their vision to make a sale. You have to write the book thats in you, not the book that youd like to think was in you. If you pretend to be writing for particular ideal readers just because they buy a lot of books, but your heart isnt in it, the quality of your writing will suffer, and you wont fool your readers either. But if you say, as Herman Melville did, I want to write a novel about a white whale, and I dont care if anybody else reads it, youll do all right. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Compared "to" or Compared "with"?Use a Dash for Number RangesStarting a Business Letter with Dear Mr.