AP Human Geography Unit 1 Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering all key terms, definitions, key historical geographers, and map concepts from AP Human Geography Unit 1.

absolute location

The coordinates of a place using latitude and longitude.

accessibility

The ability to reach a place with respect to another place.

agricultural density

The number of farmers per unit of farmland.

arithmetic density

The total number of objects in an area.

cartography

The science of map-making.

choropleth map

A thematic map using shading to show a pattern of a variable (the darker the shading, the higher the concentration of the variable).

concentration

The extent of a feature's spread over space.

connectivity

Relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

contagious diffusion

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

core-periphery

Central, wealthy, technologically advanced countries vs. less-developed, poor, and dependant countries.

cultural ecology

The geographic study of human-environment relationships.

cultural landscape

Forms superimposed on the physical environment by humans.

density

The frequency with which something occurs in space.

diffusion

The process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time.

distance decay

Contact diminishes with increasing distance and eventually disappears.

distribution

The arrangement of a feature in space.

environmental determinism

The theory that the physical environment causes social development.

equator

The parallel with the largest circumference and the place with $12$ hours of daylight ($0$ degrees latitude).

Eratosthenes

Created the word geography, accepted the Earth is sperical, calculated its circumference, and created a map of the Earth dividing it into climatic regions.

expansion diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process.

formal region

An area within which everyone shares in a common one or more distinctive characteristics.

functional region

An area organized around a node or central point.

GIS

A computer system that can capture, store, query, analyze, and display geographic data.

globalization

A force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope.

GPS

A system that accurately determines the precise position of something on Earth.

Greenwich Mean Time

The master reference time for all points on Earth; the time at the prime meridian.

hearth

The place from which an innovation originates.

hierarchical diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority to other persons or places.

human geography

The study of where and why human activities are located where they are.

International Date Line

A line following the $180$ degree latitude line where when you cross it going west, you set the clock forward by $24$ hours.

isoline map

A thematic map with continuous lines joining points of the same value.

Land Ordinance Act of 1785

Divided the West into townships and ranges to help with the buying and selling of land.

latitude

The numbering system to indicate the location of a parallel.

location

The position that something occupies on Earth's surface.

longitude

A numbering system used to locate each meridian on Earth's surface.

map

A two-dimensional or flat-scale model of Earth's surface, or a portion of it.

mental map

An internal representation of a portion of Earth's surface.

Mercator projection

Rectangular-shaped maps with little shape and direction distortion, but a lot of size distortion.

meridian

An arc drawn between the North and South poles.

pattern

The geometric arrangement of objects in space.

physiological density

The number of persons per unit of land suitable for agriculture.

possibilism

Theory that the physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment.

prime meridian

The meridian that is $0$ degrees longitude.

principle meridian

The north-south lines separating townships.

projection

The scientific method of transferring locations on Earth's surface to a flat map.

Ptolemy

An ancient Greek who wrote Guide to Geography and made many maps.

reference map

Help people find and identify physical and/or political features.

region

An area of Earth distinguished by a distinctive combination of physical and cultural traits.

relative location

Lets us find unfamiliar locations by comparing them to familiar ones.

remote sensing

The acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting Earth or other long-distance methods.

Robinson projection

Maps that are useful for displaying information across the oceans, but land areas are smaller than on interrupted maps of the same size.

scale

Refers to the relationship of a feature's size on a map compared to its actual size on Earth.

sense of place

A feeling for the features that contribute to the distinctiveness of a particular spot on Earth.

sequent occupance

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.

site

The physical character of a place.

situation

The location of a place relative to other places.

space-time compression

The reduction in time it takes for something to reach another place.

spatial

Depending on the scale, different spatial assumptions can be made.

stimulus diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.

thematic map

Shows how a particular feature is distributed over an area.

Tobler's First Law of Geography

Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than far things.

toponym

The name given to a place on Earth.

vernacular region

A place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.