AP Human Georgraphy Unit 1

field observation

involves geographers physically visiting a site to confirm what satellites have seen from space

toponym

place names that often reflect the history or culture of the people who live there

the prime meridian passes through

greenwich new england

cultural ecology

the study of the relationship between human cultures and the physical environment

gall-peters map projection

area of landmasses are accurate

repositions many countries to their rightful size

shapes are innaccurate near the poles

vertically stretched near the equator

mercator map projection

preserves right angles of latitude and longitude

used for navigation, marine

area is distorted near the poles

increases the size of high latitude areas

robinson projection

no major distortions

compromise

all aspects are slightly distorted

what are four factors cartographers must choose between when making a map projection

shape

area

distance

direction

site

the internal physical features of an area

situation

external connections to other places

friction of distance

the effort/cost required to overcome distance, which leads to distance decay

remote sensing

detecting and monitoring physical characteristics of an area

GIS

software that can manipulate geospaitial data that can be used for research

GPS

places in the world based on known coordinates (latitude and longitude)

spaitial patterns

how and where different geographic features occur on the earth’s surface

absolute distance

distance that can be measured in feet or miles

relative distance

measures social, cultural, or political differences or similarities between two locations

absolute direction

cardinal directions

relative direction

describes one location in referance to another

clustering/dispersal

shows how different phenomena are organized across an area

evelation

measures the height of geographic features relative to sea level

map scale

tells you how the distance on the map relates to distance in the real world

referance map

display specific geographic locations

thematic maps

specialize in displaying geographic information

choropleth

visualizes date from a specific geographic region in different colors

cartogram

distorts the size of geographic shapes to display differences in data

graduated symbol

also known as a proportional map

dot distribution

uses dots to visualize the location of certain data points

isoline map

uses lines to depict changes in data

Goode map

accurately represents the shapes but breaks up the oceans to do so

polar

views the world from the North or South Pole, area around the edges is distorted

census

gathers information about a government’s citizens

geospaitial technology

hardware and software that can examine and measure geographic features on the earth

spaitial concepts

the way in which different phenomena are organized in space

space

a theoretical concept that geographers use to describe the geometric surface of the earth

place

describes the way humans modify a particular space in ways that reflect who they are

flow

describes the patterns of connection between two places

distance decay

the idea that the further you get, the weaker, or less impactful and idea will have

time-space compression

reduces the influence of distance decay

• technology

patterns

making sense of how phenomena are arranged on the landscape

natural resources

materials found in the earth that humans use for economic gain

renewable resources

can be used in an unlimited measure

non-renewable resources

can only be used in a limited measure

sustainability

using nonrenewable resources so they will continue to be available in the future

possibilism

humans determine culture

environment determinism

environment determines culture

analysis

observing and thinking about data and then drawing conclusions about it

scale

how large or small that data set is

region

a geographical unit which shares some unifiying principle

formal region

linked by common traits or some geographical feature

functional region

nodal region

perceptual region

defined by peoples shared beliefs and feelings about themselves

geographic scale

size of map scale

scale of analysis

size we are comparing data at