Chapter 11 Vocab AP Human Geography

Active Solar Energy

Solar radiation captured with photovoltaic cells that convert light energy to electrical energy.

Break-of-bulk point

A location where transfer is possible from one mode of transportation to another.

Bulk-gaining industry

An industry in which the final product weighs more or comprises a greater volume than the inputs.

Bulk-reducing industry

An industry in which the final product weighs less or comprises a lower volume than the inputs.

Cottage industry

Manufacturing based in homes rather than in factories, most common prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Demand

The quantity of something that people wish to consume and are able to buy.

Fission

The splitting of an atomic nucleus to release energy.

Fossil fuel

An energy source formed from the residue of plants and animals buried millions of years ago.

Fusion

Creation of energy by joining the nuclei of two hydrogen atoms to form helium.

Geothermal energy

Energy from steam or hot water produced from hot or molten underground rocks.

Just-in-time delivery

Shipment of parts and materials to arrive at a factory moments before they are needed.

Labor-intensive industry

An industry for which labor costs comprise a high percentage of total expenses.

Maquiladora

A factory built by a U.S. company in Mexico near the U.S. border, to take advantage of the much lower labor costs in Mexico.

New international division of labor

Transfer of some types of jobs, especially those requiring low-paid, less-skilled workers, from more developed to less developed countries.

Nonrenewable energy

A source of energy that has a finite supply capable of being exhausted.

Outsourcing

A decision by a corporation to turn over much of the responsibility for production to independent suppliers.

Ozone

A gas that absorbs ultraviolet solar radiation and is found in the stratosphere, a zone 15 to 50 kilometers (9 to 30 miles) above Earth's surface.

Point-source pollution

Pollution that enters a body of water from a specific source.

Air pollution

Concentration of trace substances, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and solid particulates, at a greater level than occurs in average air.

Pollution

Concentration of waste added to air, water, or land at a greater level than occurs in average air. water. or land.

Post-fordist production

Adoption by companies of flexible work rules. such as the allocation of workers to teams that perform a variety of tasks. .

Potential reserve

The amount of a resource in deposits not yet identified but thought to exist.

Proven reserve

The amount of a resource remaining in discovered deposits.

Recycling

The separation, collection, processing, marketing, and reuse of unwanted material.

Remanufacturing

The rebuilding of a product to specifications of the original manufactured product using a combination of reused. repaired and new parts.

Renewable energy

A source of energy that has a theoretically unlimited supply and is not depleted when used by people.

Right-to-work law

A U.S. law that prevents a union and a company from negotiating a contract that requires workers to join the union as a condition of employment.

Sanitary landfill

A place to deposit solid waste, where a layer of earth is bulldozed over garbage each day to reduce emissions of gases and odors from the decaying trash, to minimize fires, and to discourage vermin.

Site factors

Location factors related to the costs of factors of production inside a plant, such as land, labor, and capital.

Situation factors

Location factors related to the transportation of materials into and from a factory.

Supply

The quantity of something that producers have available for sale.

Vertical integration

An approach typical of traditional mass production in which a company controls all phases of a highly complex production process.

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods.

Sunbelt

States in the south and southwest that have a warm climate and tend to be politically conservative.

Fordist production

Form of mass production in which each worker is assigned one specific task to perform repeatedly.

Variable costs

Costs that vary with the quantity of output produced and level of production.

Offshore

With reference to production, to outsource to a third party located outside of the country.

Deindustrialization

Process by which companies move industrial jobs to other regions with cheaper labor, leaving the newly deindustrialized region to switch to a service economy and to work through a period of high unemployment.

Technopole

Centers or nodes of high-technology research and activity around which a high-technology corridor is sometimes established.

Agglomeration

Grouping together of many firms from the same industry in a single area for collective or cooperative use of infrastructure and sharing of labor resources.

Deglomeration

The dispersal of an industry that formerly existed in an established agglomeration.

Friction of distance

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

Distance decay

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

Least Cost Theory

Model developed by Alfred Weber according to which the location of manufacturing establishments is determined by the minimization of three critical expenses: labor, transportation, and agglomeration.

Locational interdependence

Theory that industries choose locations based on where their competitors are located.

Primary industrial regions

Western and Central Europe; Eastern North America; Russia and Ukraine; and Eastern Asia, each of which consists of one or more core areas of industrial development with subsidiary clusters