chap 1/2 quiz for geography

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering key geographical concepts and population dynamics, formatted in a question and answer style.

What are geography’s five most basic concepts?

Location, Place, Region, Movement, and Human–Environment Interaction.

What is remote sensing?

getting Earth data from satellites, airplanes, or drones.

What is GPS?

A satellite system that determines precise locations.

What is GIS?

A computer system that stores, analyzes, and displays layered geographic data.

What are the three types of map scale?

Ratio scale, written scale, and graphic (bar) scale.

Why do maps have distortion?

Because projecting Earth’s curved surface onto a flat map distorts shape, size, distance, or direction.

What is the geographic grid?

A system of latitude and longitude lines used to determine exact locations.

How do latitude and longitude work together?

Latitude measures north–south; longitude measures east–west; intersection gives absolute location.

How does longitude relate to time zones?

Earth is divided into 24 time zones, roughly 15° of longitude each.

What is site?

A place’s physical characteristics such as climate, soil,

What is situation?

A place’s location relative to other places.

What is a toponym?

The name given to a place.

What is a cultural landscape?

The visible imprint of human activity on the environment.

What are formal, functional, and vernacular regions?

Formal = uniform traits; Functional = organized around a node; Vernacular = perceived region.

What is density?

Number of features in an area.

What is concentration?

The spread of features (clustered or dispersed).

What is pattern?

The arrangement of features in space.

What is diffusion?

The spread of ideas or objects—includes moving to new places or spreading like a virus.

What is a hearth?

The origin point of an idea

What is spatial interaction?

Movement of people, goods, or ideas between places.

What is assimilation?

When a group loses its original culture and adopts another.

What is acculturation?

When cultures share traits but stay different.

What are networks?

Systems of connections linking places.

What is distance decay?

As distance increases, interaction decreases.

What is space–time compression?

Technology reduces travel/communication time between places.

What is a resource?

Anything from the environment used by humans.

What are the three pillars of sustainability?

Environment, Economy, and Society.

What are the four Earth spheres?

Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere.

How do ecosystems interact with abiotic systems?

Life relies on and affects air, water, and land.

What are the major population concentrations?

East Asia, South Asia, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Eastern North America.

Why is population unevenly distributed?

Climate, resources, water, soil, and historical settlement patterns.

What is arithmetic density?

People per unit of total land area.

What is physiological density?

People per unit of arable (farmable) land.

What is agricultural density?

Farmers per unit of land.

What is natural increase rate (NIR)?

Birth rate minus death rate, not including migration.

What is doubling time?

The amount of time it takes for a population to double.

What is CBR?

Crude birth rate—births per 1,000 people.

What is CDR?

Crude death rate—deaths per 1,000 people.

What are the stages of the demographic transition model?

Stage 1: high BR/DR; Stage 2: high BR, falling DR; Stage 3: falling BR; Stage 4: low BR & DR; Stage 5: very low BR.

What is life expectancy?

Average number of years a person is expected to live.

What is a population pyramid?

A graph showing age and sex structure of a population.

What is the epidemiologic transition?

Shift from infectious diseases to chronic diseases as development increases.

What was Malthus’s theory?

Population grows faster than food supply.

What do Neo-Malthusians argue?

Resource depletion will cause crises.

What do critics argue?

Technology increases food production.

What characterizes a Stage 5 DTM country?

Aging population and population decline.

Why is TFR important?

Total fertility rate predicts future population change.

What is the population outlook for India, China, and Japan?

India: growing; China: aging/shrinking; Japan: very old & declining.

What is Stage 5 of the epidemiologic transition?

Return of infectious diseases.

How do education and healthcare reduce birth rates?

Education empowers women; healthcare lowers IMR.

What is infant mortality rate (IMR)?

Infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

What does arable mean?

Land suitable for growing crops.

What are abiotic systems?

Non-living components of the environment, such as air, water, soil, and climate.