Cartographic literacy (was latitude)

[Ted Samsel]

Murthy sez (again):
> 
> Ted Samsel writes:
> > Murthy sez:
> > > A metric unit is not needed unless you want to measure latitude and
> > > longitude in metric using gradians, radians or some such units (which is
> > > not a popular practice), 
> > I beg to differ.... UNIVERSAL TRANSVERSE MERCATOR uses meters as the
> > base..... it's quite popular amongst us cartographers.
> > And it lends its self well to GPS systems...
> 
> Umm, I know that many modern navigation systems use meters and
> kilometers (instead of nautical miles), but what I meant was that it was
> not a popular practice to use anything but degrees and minutes for
> latitude and longitude. Would like to know if this is incorrect...

Popular as in the "great unwashed"...?
A great many people are unable to read maps at all... this may be due
to early exposure... I recall that the German people have a higher
ability to read maps since geography is still a required subject
all through their schooling. The US doesn't fare so well, for 
obvious reasons. (Back in geography grad school, I read several articles
on cartographic literacy and it seems that some foax just haven't the
ability to process map information. A sort of dis-topo-lexis?)

Ted Samsel....tejas at infi.net 
  "I want the frimfram sauce with the orson-fay
         and chifaffa on the side...."