AP Human Geo Vocab Unit 1

cartographer

A person who makes maps

Data Aggregation

The process of collection and organizing large amounts of information

Spatial perspective

A geographical perspective that seeks to identify and explain the uses of space

spatial patterns

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

Time-distance decay

known as the “first law of geography”

map symbols

graphic elements that help organize the information in a map, such as (but not limited to) dots, arrows, stars, squares, and dotted lines

Absolute direction

corresponds to the direction on a compass

map scale

The distance on a map in relation to distance in actual space; for example, 1 inch on a map might indicate a distance of 100 miles

scale

The territorial extent of an idea or object

absolute distance

The distance that can be measured with a standard unit of length, such as a foot, yard, mile, or kilometer

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, such as in front of or behind, to the left or to the right

isoline

On a map, a line that connects or links different places that share a common or equal value, such as elevation

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, such as the locations of cities or oceans

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 to represent 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 or graduated circle map

A map that uses symbols (such as circles or dots) of different sizes to represent numerical values

dot density or dot distribution map

A map that uses dots to represent objects or counts; the dot can represent one object (a one-to-one dot density map) or it can represent a number of objects (a one-to-many dot density map)

map projection

A method for representing the surface of Earth or a celestial sphere on a plane (two-dimensional) surface; all map projections distort some aspect of Earth's surface

Mercator projection

A map projection that is useful for navigation because the lines connecting points on the map represent the true compass direction; however, landmasses become increasingly distorted the farther away they are from the equator

Peters projection

A map projection that shows all landmasses with their true areas but distorts their shapes

homolosine projection

A map projection that avoids shape distortion and the restrictions of a rectangular map by creating "interruptions" in the map's continuity; in each section, map projection regions are shown "equally," like an orange peel being laid out in a flat surface

polar projection

A map projection that looks down at Earth from the perspective of one of the poles (North Pole or South Pole)

Robinson projection

A map projection that attempts to create the most visually appealing representation of Earth by keeping all types of distortion relatively low over most of the map