Challenges Flashcards
(6 cards)
On a piece of paper name all 50 US states.
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
What is the distinction between “weather” and “climate?”
In the Rocky Mountains, snow can fall during any month of the year; as winter approaches, it is important to remember the distinction between “weather” and “climate.” While “weather” refers to the day-to-day conditions, “climate” refers to these conditions over long periods of time. Mark Twain put it: “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.” An analogy: climate refers to the type of clothes you have in your wardrobe and weather refers to what you wear on a given day.
Describe how the Geographic Coordinate System works.
The “latitude” (abbreviation: Lat., φ, or phi) of a point on the Earth’s surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and is normal to the surface of a reference ellipsoid which approximates the shape of the Earth. This line passes a few kilometers away from the center of the Earth except at the poles and the equator where it passes through Earth’s center. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of the Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator and to each other. The north pole is 90° N; the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the fundamental plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
The “longitude” (abbreviation: Long., λ, or lambda) of a point on the Earth’s surface is the angle east or west from a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses (often improperly called great circles), which converge at the north and south poles.
A line, which was intended to pass through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (a suburb of London, UK), was chosen as the international zero-longitude reference line, the Prime Meridian. Places to the east are in the eastern hemisphere, and places to the west are in the western hemisphere. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E. The zero/zero point is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana.
In 1884 the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference and twenty-five nations attended. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the location of Greenwich as the zero-reference line. The Dominican Republic voted against the adoption of that motion, while France and Brazil abstained.
The combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the planet, but does not consider altitude nor depth. This latitude/longitude “webbing” is known as the graticule. A graticule representing latitude and longitude of the Earth does not constitute a hierarchy of geographical areas. This is to say, it is not an arrangement of related information or data.
What is the difference (visually and geographically) between alligators and crocodiles?
Snout shape: Alligators have wider, U-shaped snouts, while crocodile front ends are more pointed and V-shaped.
Toothy grin: When their snouts are shut, crocodiles look like they’re flashing a toothy grin, as the fourth tooth on each side of the lower jaw sticks up over the upper lip. For alligators, the upper jaw is wider than the lower one, so when they close their mouths, all their teeth are hidden.
Home base: Crocodiles tend to live in saltwater habitats, while alligators hang out in freshwater marshes and lakes.
What is the difference between factitious and fictitious?
Factitious: artificially created or developed.
Fictitious: not real or true, being imaginary or having been fabricated.
What do nulliparous and multiparous mean?
nulliparous: of, relating to, or being a female that has not borne offspring
multiparous: (of a woman) having borne more than one child.
