State whether the following is true or false.
Visual variables can be combined, so that one symbol carries two attributes at once.
Answer: A
A proportional circle shaded by category encodes amount through size and kind through hue, and the two are read largely independently. The limit is practical: too many variables on one symbol slow the reader down more than they inform.
Please log in or register to report this question.
A flow line 2 mm wide represents 500 tonnes. If width is scaled directly with the quantity, what width represents 2,000 tonnes?
Answer: B
Correct answer: 8 mm
Here the *width* is scaled directly with the quantity, not the area, so the relationship is linear: \[ 2 \times \frac{2000}{500} = 2 \times 4 = 8\ \mathrm{mm}. \] The contrast with the proportional circle is worth holding - there the radius took a square root because area was the scaled quantity, whereas a flow line is scaled on one dimension and needs none.
Please log in or register to report this question.
A symbol placed on a map to stand for a feature too small to draw to scale is best described as
Answer: C
Correct answer: an off-scale or conventional symbol
A church, a windmill or a trigonometric station occupies a few metres on the ground and nothing at all at 1:50,000, so it is drawn as a conventional symbol whose size reflects legibility rather than ground extent. The consequence to remember is that such symbols are not measurable: their position is meaningful and their size is not.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Placing a label so that it is clearly associated with one feature and not its neighbour is a matter of
Answer: D
Settled conventions place a settlement name to the upper right of its point, run a river name along the channel and set an area name across the feature. These rules exist so that association is read without conscious effort.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Italic lettering on a topographic map conventionally denotes
Answer: A
Correct answer: water features
Italic lettering is conventionally reserved for hydrographic names - rivers, lakes, seas and bays - usually in blue as well. The lettering style is a visual variable in its own right, and using slope, weight and case systematically lets a reader tell a river name from a settlement name before reading either.
Please log in or register to report this question.
State whether the following is true or false.
A larger type size in a map's lettering usually indicates a more important or larger place.
Answer: B
Type size functions exactly as the visual variable of size does elsewhere, encoding a hierarchy among the named places. A capital city is set larger than a town, so the hierarchy is read before any name is actually deciphered.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Figure-ground organisation in map design refers to
Answer: C
Devices such as a lighter surround, a darker study area or a subtle drop shadow tell the eye which part of the sheet is the subject. Without that separation the reader has to work out where to look before reading anything.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Consider the following statements about colour on maps.
1. Value and saturation can be varied independently of hue.
2. Roughly eight per cent of men have some form of colour vision deficiency.
3. Red and green are a safe pairing for distinguishing two categories.
Answer: D
Correct answer: 1 and 2 only
Statements 1 and 2 are correct: value and saturation vary independently of hue, and about eight per cent of men have some colour vision deficiency. Statement 3 is precisely wrong - red-green deficiency is the common form, so red against green is the least safe pairing available and should be avoided in any map that must be read reliably.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Designing a map so that it remains readable for colour-blind users is best achieved by
Answer: A
Correct answer: varying value as well as hue between classes
If the classes differ in lightness as well as in colour, they remain distinguishable to a reader who cannot separate the hues, and they survive photocopying too. Adding more hues makes the problem worse by crowding the space, raising saturation does not help someone who cannot perceive the difference, and enlarging the map changes nothing about colour.
Please log in or register to report this question.
State whether the following is true or false.
A north arrow is required on every map.
Answer: B
It is needed when the orientation is not obvious or not conventional, but a sheet with a graticule or one in a series with a known standard orientation carries the information already. Adding it unthinkingly is clutter rather than good practice.
Please log in or register to report this question.
