Well the past few days,nights, and early mornings have been incredibly
productive. As you can see by the new link to the left, Photo Gallery, I have been busy at scouring the maps of Phoenix.
Rulers, T-squares, compass, and pencils at the ready, mapping has actually become
less of a hassle and more of an enjoyable experience. But as we all know, all
good things must come to an end.
Thus I am happy to say that I have found the area for my
model. It has new and old government, corporate, private, and recreational
buildings along with existing train tracks. So where is this place? The
boundaries are as follows:
North: Van Buren St.
South: Lincoln St.
East: 7th St.
West: 18th Ave.
The dimensions of this cross section are 1.91 x 0.63
miles, resulting in a total area of 1.22 square miles. Starting tomorrow, I
shall use this information to decide on the scale for my model. This process
will include many measurements using Google Earth, mathematical conversions,
and taking into consideration how large I actually want the base to be. Just as
I have been writing this post, it has occurred to me that the ratio of one
meter to one mile might best serve my purposes, meaning that the model would be
a metric representation of imperial measurements.
For those of you who suggested two separate models, might
still get their way. Due to my love for aviation and my ideas for water
preservation, another section of Phoenix may be modeled. This would be Sky
Harbor and the Salt River. The most likely boundaries would be:
North: E Air Ln.
South: University Dr.
East: AZ 143
West: Interstate 10
I always appreciate any questions or constructive
comments that you might have! (Also, I applaud anyone who gets what the title is referencing!)
John,
ReplyDeleteI love how excited you are about this project! But for those of us who aren't up on our mapping jargon, what exactly does "a metric representation of imperial measurements" mean? It sounds quite exciting so I am hoping to share in this excitement with you!
Also, for Sky Harbor, are you going to make the airport itself more sustainable, or are you also going to be looking at a way to make the airplanes it uses sustainable, too? This sounds rather interesting and I can't wait for your future blogs!
-Josh N.
Josh,
ReplyDeleteIn response to your first question, the phrase means that the maps (including Google Earth) are in imperial units. Imperial units are inches, feet, miles, etc. But as we know, real science uses metric units. Thus, I will take the measurements imperial units from the maps, and translate those into metric units for the scale model. For instance, the section of Phoenix we are discussing is 10075ft by 3300ft. By using the actual to model ratio of 1 mile to 1 meter, the area would measure about 191cm by 63cm.
As for Sky Harbor, the more I consider it, the more I believe that it probably won't happen. But should it happen, I'll let you know. Also, I will not attempt to make the planes more sustainable. In my opinion, they need gasoline because of the lives that they are responsible for.