AP Human Geography - Unit 1 Vocabulary

A set of vocabulary flashcards for key terms in AP Human Geography Unit 1.

Built landscape

The part of the physical landscape that represents material culture, including buildings, roads, and other infrastructure created by humans.

Cultural landscape

A geographical area that is shaped by the interactions of human beings and their environment, reflecting cultural practices.

Arithmetic density

The total number of people divided by the total land area.

Physiological density

The number of people per unit area of arable land.

Hearth

A point of origin or a center of innovation from which ideas, technologies, or cultural practices spread.

Relocation diffusion

The spread of an idea or innovation through the physical movement of people from one place to another.

Hierarchical diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority to other persons or places.

Contagious diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.

Stimulus diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.

Expansion diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process.

Dispersed

A type of settlement pattern in which people or objects are spread out over an area.

Clustered

A type of settlement pattern where people or objects are concentrated in a specific area.

Absolute distance

The exact distance between two points, measured in units such as miles or kilometers.

Relative distance

The distance between two places in terms of how long it takes to get from one to the other or the cost of travel.

Environmental determinism

The view that the physical environment, especially the climate, shapes human behaviors and cultures.

Absolute location

The exact location of a place, often defined by latitude and longitude.

Relative location

The location of a place in relation to other places.

Site

The physical characteristics of a place including landforms, climate, and resources.

Situation

The location of a place relative to its surroundings and other places.

Toponym

The name given to a place, which often reflects the culture and history of the area.

Natural landscape

The physical landscape unaffected by human activity.

Possibilism

The theory that the environment sets certain constraints or limitations, but culture is otherwise determined by social conditions.

Formal/uniform region

An area defined by a common characteristic, such as language, climate, or political boundary.

Functional/nodal region

An area organized around a node or focal point, often linked by transportation or communication.

Perceptual/vernacular region

An area defined by people's feelings and attitudes about the area, often subjective.

Distance decay

The diminishing importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.

Space-time compression

The process that combines distance and time, making the world feel smaller due to advancements in technology.

Distortion

An alteration in the shape, size, or position of a feature on a map.

GIS

Geographic Information System, technology used for capturing, storing, analyzing, and managing spatial data.

GPS

Global Positioning System, a system of satellites that provide the precise location of objects on Earth.

Map scale

The ratio between the distance on a map and the actual distance on the ground.

Choropleth map

A map that uses differences in shading or coloring to indicate the values of a variable across geographic areas.

Mental map

A person's point-of-view perception of their area of interaction.

Projection

The method used to represent the 3-dimensional surface of the Earth on a 2-dimensional map.

Isochrone

A line on a map connecting points of equal travel time from a specific location.