Questions:

Q1: What information does the Source tab provide about the states shapefile?

The source tab provides two sections of information. The first section shows the extents of the dataset, providing me with how far the data goes each way (Top, bottom, right, and left). The next section gives me the data source. It shows me where the data is on the computer, the type of geometry, and other important information such as the coordinate system and the angular units.

Q2: What coordinate system is this layer in? Is it a geographic or projected coordinate system? What is the difference between these two types of coordinate systems?

This layer is in the GCS North American 1983 coordinate system. It is a geographic coordinate system. Projected coordinate systems are those that are laid out in 2 dimensions, while geographic coordinate systems take into account that the earth is a sphere.

Q3: Compare the different projections. How does the shape of the continental US change with each projection?

In the Robinson projection, it seems you are viewing the States from an angle that is southeast, possible as if you were to zoom out from the coordinates 0,0. Plate Carree is a very flat projection and is not does not take into account and curvature of the earth, seems stretched out from east to west. Mercator looks to be the classical representation of the U.S. and is less stretched than Plate Carree. Albers Equal Area Conic shows the U.S. more rounded, and it most accurately represents the United States.

Q4: How does the position of the cities in relation to each other appear to change between projections (give an example of some cities)?

The cities appear to change distance in the different projections. Such as in the Albers Equal Area Conic, Chicago and Los Angeles seem to be closer to each other than in the Mercator projection. In the Mercator projection it seems that the cities are farther due to Mercator being more stretched out and flat while the conic seems closer.

Q5: What spatial properties (i.e. shape, direction, area) does each projection distort?

Albers Conic projection distorts shape, Plate Carree distorts area and shape, Robinson distorts direction, shape and area. Lastly Mercator distorts area.

Q6: Use the measure tool to measure the planar distance between cities. How does this distance change between projections? Create a table with your findings.

Distance between Phoenix to Philadelphia to Chicago Mercator	5,798,940m
Distance between Phoenix to Philadelphia to Chicago Robinson	7,559,970m
Distance between Phoenix to Philadelphia to Chicago Plate Carree	5,732,959m
Distance between Phoenix to Philadelphia to Chicago Albers Conic	5,872,741

This distance doesn’t change much between the projections for the most part, except for the Robinson projection, which gave me a much larger measurement for the distance between the three cities.

Q7: What variables does this dataset contain?

This dataset contains the name of the state, abbreviations of that name, land and water sizes, and other items such as STATENS, ADDGEOID, and GEOID.

 Q8: What classification methods did you use? How does each classification method bias the interpretation of the data?

I used natural breaks (Jenks), equal interval, and quantile. The classification method changes the amounts used to color the states, and makes each map look completely different. Natural breaks worked best for my map, while I thought equal interval looked uninteresting and made the data harder to compare.