Thematic Mapping Techniques Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Dividing 90,000 by 250 gives 360 people for each square kilometre. Density is the standard normalisation for population because it removes the effect of the unit's size on the comparison, letting a small crowded district be set against a large empty one.

Answer: D

The rates are 20 and 15 cases per thousand, so the first is higher by about a third even though the second has more cases. This reversal is exactly what normalisation exists to reveal, and mapping the counts alone would have hidden it completely.

Answer: A

A populous unit accumulates high counts while its rate stays modest, and a small unit can do the reverse. Which of the two is mapped therefore decides the story, which is why the choice must be stated in the title rather than assumed.

Answer: B

Two variables are encoded together, often as a grid of nine colours combining two three-class schemes. The technique reveals where the two coincide, at the cost of a legend the reader must study before the map can be read.

Answer: C

Correct answer: its legend is demanding to interpret

A bivariate choropleth crosses two classifications, so a three-by-three scheme needs nine colours arranged in a square that the reader must learn before any part of the map can be read. That cost is real and is why the technique is used sparingly, but the map does not require equal areas, identical variables or a single colour - those three are inventions.

Answer: D

Correct answer: compare many maps drawn to a common design

Small multiples repeat the same map for different times, places or variables, at the same size, projection and classification, so that the eye can compare them directly. The constancy is what does the work: everything is held fixed except the one thing being compared, and the differences between the panels become the subject of the sheet.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both are true and the reason is exactly why. If each year were classified on its own data, the same tone would mean a different range on each panel, and a district appearing to darken over time might in fact have held steady while the distribution around it shifted. A single classification spanning all years is what makes the comparison honest, even though it leaves some panels using only part of the scale.

Answer: B

Motion conveys the direction and pace of change in a way that separate frames do not. The corresponding weakness is that the reader cannot hold two moments side by side, so comparison across time becomes harder rather than easier.

Answer: C

It shows a smoothed estimate whose appearance depends on the chosen bandwidth. A wide bandwidth spreads activity into a broad glow and a narrow one breaks it into separate peaks, from the same points, so the parameter must be reported.

Answer: D

Every neighbouring hexagon shares an edge and lies the same distance away, so the pattern has no diagonal bias. Squares tessellate perfectly well, but their corner neighbours sit further off than their edge neighbours.