APHG Unit 1 Thinking Geographically - Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key geographic terms and definitions from Unit 1 Thinking Geographically.

Spatial Patterns

The placement or arrangement of objects on Earth's surface; also includes the space between those objects.

Time Distance Decay

'First law of geography'; the idea that near things are more related than distant things, and interaction between two places decreases the farther apart they are.

Map Scale

The distance on a map in relation to distance in actual space.

Absolute Distance

The distance that can be measured with a standard unit of length.

Relative Distance

A measurement of the level of social, cultural, or economic similarity between places despite their absolute distance from each other.

Relative Direction

A direction that can be described as position.

Isoline

On a map, a line that connects or links different places that share a common or equal value.

Topographic Map

A graphic representation of the three-dimensional configuration of Earth's surface.

Reference Map

A map that shows geographic locations on Earth's surface.

Thematic Map

A map that emphasizes the spatial patterns of geographic statistics or attributes and sometimes the relationships between them.

Choropleth Map

A thematic map that shows data aggregated for a specific geographic area, often using different colors for different values.

Cartogram

A map that distorts the geographic shape of an area in order to show the size of a specific variable; the larger the area on a cartogram, the larger the value of the underlying variable.

Proportional (Graduated) Symbol Map

A map that uses symbols of different sizes to represent numerical values.

Dot (Distribution) Density Map

A map that uses dots to represent objects or counts; the dot can represent one object.