Rethinking Components

I had spent the majority of the first half of the week working on connecting sources to pipelines manually using google maps. While this was a very easy and visual way of constructing these new pipelines, it proved quite tedious. After discussing the process with my mentor, I have decided to go in a different direction and do a bit more data analysis before working on the actual plan for construction. As a result of this conversation, I have decided to return to data analysis and focus on some more calculations that will allow me to complete this process in a more efficient manner. I found myself kind of discouraged by this “setback” of having to return to data analysis, the portion of my project that I thought was completed. Upon further reflection, I see the benefit of continuing data analysis but I still don’t love having to go back to my program and rewrite some things.

One of the biggest problems I have faced when thinking about rewriting this program is the fact that I do not know how to calculate everything using latitude and longitude points. Considering the amount of math that I have taken throughout high school, it is not difficult to figure out how to do these calculations using a normal x and y plane, but considering the fact that the Earth is a sphere, changes how these calculations must be made. I will definitely need to do some extensive research on how to accurately complete these calculations.

Overall, the rewriting of my program and the change in plans for this coming week has thrown me off a bit but I believe that I can get back on track and make some real progress on this component of my final product and move into the portion of the project that I am really looking forward to.