-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re:  Colors on Maps]
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:17:29 -0700
From: Dr. Virginia R. Hetrick <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
References: <[log in to unmask]>

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Hi, Carlos -

It seems to me that when I was in K-8, most countries in the former
British Empire were colored one color and most French colonies were
another color.  But, while I was in high school, nearly all those places
became independent countries and got their "own" colors.  Now, unless
I'm looking at a political map, I hardly ever see colors because I
generally use my Goode's Atlas which is nearly completely relief maps,
except for city insets, etc.

Two other thoughts occur to me:

1.  Until about two years ago, I never was conscious of "red" states and
"blue" states, though, of course, all the networks and newspapers
certainly were.  Duh!  I guess I was differentiating on some other
basis.  ;-)

2.  I would kind of suspect that the real issue is the four-color map
problem where, traditionally, it has been undesirable to have two
political units next to each other with the same color.  When I was
learning topology and had to do research papers in three courses, the
four-color map problem was my topic of choice because I really wanted to
figure out how to not have it govern how coloring any map, not just
geographical maps, happened.

Finally, entirely too many countries became independent between Labor
Day, 1959, and Memorial Day, 1960.  Every week in my World Problems
class we had a quiz on some part of the world where we had to label
outline maps with the names of the political unit occupying each
polygon.  One week, the teacher handed out the list for Friday's quiz on
the Monday and by Friday eight of the eleven units had different names
(for which we were responsible -- he never had a soft spot for anybody,
even with things changing that fast.).  In spite of his efforts, I got
an A for all four terms which had only happened once before in school
history!  Color me happy!

HTH.

virginia
--

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