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AP HUG unit 1 vocab
Question | Answer |
---|---|
place | a specific point on earth distinguished by a particular character |
built landscape | the built landscape is represented by those features and patterns reflecting human occupations and use of natural resources |
sequent occupance | the notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contribution to the cumulative cultural landscape. this is an important concept in geography because it symbolizes how human interact with their surroundings. |
cultural landscape | a combination of cultural features such as language and religion, economic features such as agriculture and industry, and physical features such as climate and vegetation |
density | the frequency with which something occurs in space |
arithmetic density | total number of objects in an area- used to compare distribution of population in different countries |
physiological density | number of people per unit of area suitable for agriculture |
diffusion | the process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time. |
hearth | the place from which innovation originates |
relocation diffusion | spread of an idea through physical movement from one place to another |
expansion diffusion | the spread of an idea from one place to another in a snowballing process |
hierarchical diffusion | spread of an idea from nodes/people of authority to other people/places |
contagious diffusion | rapid, widespread diffusions of a characteristic throughout a region |
stimulus diffusion | spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse |
direction | information contained in the relative position of one point with respect to another point without the distance information. |
distance | the measurement of the physical space between places |
absolute distance | exact measurement of physical space between two places. |
distribution | the arrangement of something across earth's surface |
environmental determinism | a nineteenth - and early twentieth- century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. |
location | the position that something occupies on earth's surface |
absolute location | The exact position of an object or place, measured within some other place |
relative location | Position on Earth’s surface relative to other features. (Ex: My house is west of 394). |
site | physical character of a place |
situation | is the location of a place relative to other places |
place name | a toponym is the name given to a place on earth |
patterns | the geometric arrangements of objects in space |
possibilism | the theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives |
regions | an area distinguished by a unique combination of features or trends |
formal/uniform regions | an area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics |
functional/nodal regions | an area organized around a node of focal point |
perceptual/vernacular regions | a place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity |
scale | refers to the relationship of a feature's size on a map to its actual size on earth |
spatial interaction | when places are connected to each other through a network, geographers say there is a spatial interaction between them |
accessibility | the degree of ease with which it is possible to reach certain location from other locations. accessibility varies from place to place and can be measured |
connectivity | the relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space. geographers are concerned with the various means by which connections occur |
network | chains of communication that connect people |
distance decay | contact between two groups diminishing with increasing distance and eventually disappearing |
friction of distance | is bases on the notion that distance usually requires some amount of effort. interactions will tend to take place more often over shorter distances; quantity of interaction will decline with distance. |
time-space compression | the reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place |
GIS | (geographic information system)- a computer system that can capture, store, query, analyze, and display geographic data |
GPS | a system that accurately finds precise position of something on earth |
north pole/ south pole | north- 90 degrees north latitude south- 90 degrees south latitude |
latitudes | numbering system that indicates the location of a parallel |
parallel | a circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians |
equator | 0 degrees latitude |
longitude | numbering system that identifies the location of each meridian on earth's surface |
meridian | is an arc drawn between the north and south poles |
international date line | for the most part follows the 180 degree longitude- turn the clock back 24 hours if heading east, ahead 24 hours if heading west when crossing it. |
thematic maps | A type of map that displays one or more variables -such as population or income level - within a specific area |
cartogram | A type of thematic map that transforms such space such that the political unit with the greatest value for some type of data is represented by the largest relative area |
dot maps | Thematic maps that use points to show the precise locations of specific observations or occurrences, such as crimes, car accidents or births. |
choropleth maps | A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area |
isoline maps | Map line that connects points of equal or very similar values |
mental maps | an internal representation of earths surface |
map scale | presented in three ways: fraction (1/24,000), ratio (1:24,000), or written ("1 inch equals 1 mile") |
models | A simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify casual relationships and to help geographers explain patterms , make decisions and predict future behaviors |
projection | the scientific method of transferring locations on earths surface to a flat map |
remote sensing | the acquisition of data about earth's surface from a satellite orbiting earth or from other long-distance methods |