Ohio Virtual Tour: Google Earth
Google Earth

What Is Google Earth?
Google Earth is a free Internet program from Google that lets you and your students explore our world in new, exciting ways. Detailed photographs from satellites and aircraft are combined with a 3-D model of our planet, allowing you to see our world from as far away as outer space, or as close up as the driveway in front of your house ... all in smooth, 3-D motion.

And that’s not all. With Google Earth you can do the following and much more:

• Tilt the Earth to see the ground from different angles

• View 3-D models of the buildings in many major cities

• View 3-D models of mountains, valleys and other major landforms

• View political boundaries

• View roads

• See animated 3-D driving directions from one place to another

• View points of interested including businesses, cities, restaurants and more

• Measure distances

Google Earth is an excellent tool for instructing students in all content areas. Examples of practical uses include these:

• Earth science: Search for mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, weather patterns and more

• History: Visit the sites of famous battles

• Literature: Visit the sites of famous novels, settings and authors

• Math: Measure distances and areas, determine travel time, study angles and intersecting lines

• World languages: Visit the landmarks and cities of foreign countries

• Geography: See the cities, countries and geographic features of the world

• Civics: Learn about the layout and businesses of your home town

How to Get Google Earth
Google Earth is a free download; however, you need to make sure your computer meets the requirements to run the program. To use Google Earth you will need an Internet connection and a computer with these minimum specifications:

PC computers

• Operating System: Windows 2000 or Windows XP

• CPU: Pentium 3,500Mhz

• System Memory (RAM): 128MB

• Hard Disk: 400MB free space

• Network Speed: 128 Kbits/sec

• Graphics Card: 3-D-capable with 16MB of VRAM

• Screen: 1024x768, “16-bit High Color”

Mac Computers

• Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.9

• CPU: G3 500Mhz

• System Memory (RAM): 256MB

• Hard Disk: 400MB free space

• Network Speed: 128 Kbits/sec

• Graphics Card: 3-D-capable with 16MB of VRAM

• Screen: 1024x768, “Thousands of Colors”

Linux Computers

• Kernel: 2.4 or later

• glibc: 2.3.2 w/ NPTL or later

• XFree86-4.0 or x.org R6.7 or later

• CPU: Pentium 3, 500Mhz

• System Memory (RAM): 128MB

• Hard Disk: 400MB free space

• Network Speed: 128 Kbits/sec

• Screen: 1024x768, 16 bit color

• Tested and works on the following OSs: Ubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.1, Fedora Core 5, Linspire 5.1, Gentoo 2006.0, Debian 3.1, Red Hat 9

Once you know your computer will be able to run Google Earth, you can download it from: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

Simply choose your type of computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) and select the option labeled “Download Google Earth.”

How to Use Google Earth
Once you have Google Earth downloaded and installed, you can begin using it. Below are instructions for the basic use of the program:

Manual Navigation
You can navigate the entire globe using the manual controls in Google Earth. Following are examples:

• To zoom in or out, use the scroll wheel on your mouse, or click the onscreen plus and minus buttons

• To move north, south, east or west, select and drag the globe with your mouse, or select an onscreen directional arrow

• To change the viewing angle, click the onscreen angle buttons

Searching for Locations
Instead of manually navigating to a location, you can have Google Earth find your destination for you.

1. In the “Search” panel, go to the “Fly To” box on the top left of the screen.

2. Type in an address or name of a location.

3. Press “Enter.”

4. Google Earth will now take you to that location, or will show you multiple options if there were several matches for your search.

Going to Placemarked Locations
Google Earth can save common locations for you in the “Places” panel. This is also where the measurement activity will load its locations. Do the following to go to such locations:

1. Use the plus and minus buttons to expand the list of places as needed.

2. When you find a location you wish to visit, double-click its name in the “Places” panel.

3. Google Earth will now fly you to that location.

4. On the globe, click on the location’s placemark icon to get more details about that location (if provided).

Using Layers
Google Earth can put additional information on top of the globe. This information is contained in different “layers.” Layers can contain information such as these:

• Terrain

• 3-D buildings

• Roads

• Borders

• Dining locations

• Transportation

• Geographic features

• Government locations

Turning Layers Off and On

1. Look in the “Layers” panel to find the available layers.

2. Use the plus and minus buttons to expand the list of layers as needed.

3. Check or uncheck each layer as desired to turn its information on or off. As you do this, the Google Earth globe will change to reflect this information.

Measuring With Google Earth
Google Earth has a built-in measurement tool that can be very useful.

1. To open the measurement tool, select “Tools,” then “Ruler” (or “Measure” in older versions).

2. Choose your desired measurement unit.

3. Select the globe icon to begin measuring.

4. Select the globe a second time to mark the end of the line you are measuring.

5. The distance will be displayed.

6. You can select the “Clear” button to remove the line and begin again.