Ap Huge unit 1 vocab

Absolute location

The exact position of an object or place, measured within the spatial coordinates of a grid system.

Census

the official count of a population

Density

the number of things (people, animals, or objects) in a specific area

Distance decay

the farther away one thing is from another, the less likely they interact.

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.

Environmental determinism

the idea that human behavior is strongly affected, controlled, or determined by the physical environment

Flow

movement of people, goods, or information that has economic, social, political, or cultural effects on societies

Formal region

An area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics

Friction of distance

A measure of how much absolute distance affects the interaction between two places.

Functional region

An area organized around a node or focal point

Geographic information systems (GIS)

computer programs that process and organize details about places on Earth and integrate those details with satellite images and other pieces of information

Global positioning system (GPS)

A set of satellites used to help determine location anywhere on Earth's surface with a portable electronic device.

Globalization

the expansion of economic, cultural, and political processes on a worldwide scale

Human geography

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

Location

the position that something occupies on Earth's surface

Map scale

The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface.

Node

the focal point of a functional region

Perceptual/vernacular region

a type of region that reflects people's feelings and attitudes about a place

Periphery

classification of a country or region that has less wealth, lower education levels, and less sophisticated technologies and also tends to have an unstable government and poor health systems

Physical geography

the study of natural processes and the distribution of features in the environment, such as landforms, plants, animals, soil, and climate

Place

A specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular character.

Possibilism

theory of human-environment interaction that states that humans have the ability to adapt the physical environment to their needs

Qualitative

Data in the form of recorded descriptions rather than numerical measurements.

Quantitative

Data that is in numbers

Reference maps

Maps that show the absolute location of places and geographic features determined by a frame of reference, typically latitude and longitude

Region

an area of Earth's surface with certain characteristics that make it distinct from other areas

Relative direction

Directions such as left, right, forward, backward, up, and down based on people's perception of places

Relative location

The position of a place in relation to another place

Remote sensing

collecting or analyzing data from a location without making physical contact

Scale

the area of the world being studied

Semi-periphery

classification of a country or region that has qualities of both core and peripheral areas and is often in the process of industrializing

Site

a place's absolute location, as well as its physical characteristics, such as the landforms, climate, and resources

Situation

The location of a place relative to another place

Space

The physical gap or interval between two objects

Spatial perspective

geographic perspective that focuses on how people live on Earth, how they organize themselves, and why the events of human societies occur where they do

Sustainability

the use of Earth's land and natural resources in ways that ensure they will continue to be available in the future

Time-space compression

a key geographic principle that describes the ways in which modern transportation and communication technology have allowed humans to travel and communicate over long distances quicker and easier

Topography

the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area.

World System Theory

theory describing the spatial and functional relationships between countries in the world economy; categorizes countries as part of a hierarchy consisting of the core, periphery, and semi-periphery