You can also measure the length of a path, rather than just a straight line. This example shows that the length of two soccer fields at MRU is 151.47 m (see yellow line on map). The dialogue box will tell you the length of the line you are measuring. Figure T4: Using the ruler tool to measure distances in Google Earth. What distance did you measure? In Figure T4, the length of the line measured represents a real distance of 151.47 m. Click once to start measuring and click again to stop.

Let’s use a line to measure the length of the two soccer fields at MRU. A dialogue box should pop up (see Figure T4). In Figure T1 below, the entire length of the scale bar represents a real distance of 230 m, and each division along the scale bar represents a real distance of 57.5 m.Ĭlick on the ruler icon in the toolbar located at the top of the screen. A scale bar helps you determine the actual, on the ground, distance between points or along lines. The bar in the bottom left corner of the image shows the scale bar (inside the orange box in Figure T1).In Figure T1, north is toward the top of the image (in the direction of the blue arrow).

In the top right corner, the compass shows which direction is north in the current view.The red place marker shows the name and the exact location of the place you typed into the search bar.

Let’s point out a few things you should know about Google Earth. From what altitude are you looking down on MRU? Figure T1: Annotated Google Earth map view of Mount Royal University (MRU), highlighting where to find the location marker for MRU (red box), the scale bar (yellow box), and north (blue arrow and compass in upper right corner).

Google earth pro mac