Introduction to Geography and Spatial Analysis

Traditional Definition: The descriptive mapping, naming, and categorizing of Earth's features.
Current Definition: The study of spatial patterns and human societies.
Core Questions of Human Geography: Focuses on "Where are people and activities found on Earth?" and "Why are they found there?"
Geography vs. History: Geographers identify the location of important places and organize material spatially; historians identify dates of important events and organize material chronologically.
Human Behavior Focus: Culture and economy.
Location Concepts:
- Place: A specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic.
- Region: An area distinguished by one or more distinctive characteristics.
Spatial Interconnectedness Concepts:
- Scale: The relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole.
- Space: The physical gap or interval between two objects.
- Connection: The relationship among people and objects across the barriers of space.

Map: A two-dimensional or flat representation of Earth's surface or a portion of it.
- Reference Tool: Helps find the shortest routes between two places and avoid getting lost.
- Communication Tool: Depicts the distribution of human activities or physical features.
Cartography: The science of making maps.
Geographic Information Science (GIScience): The analysis of data about Earth acquired through satellite and electronic information technologies.
Geographic Information System (GIS): A computer system that captures, stores, queries, and displays geographic data organized in layers (e.g., country boundaries, bodies of water, roads) to measure spatial changes over time.
Remote Sensing: The acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or other long-distance methods.
Global Positioning System (GPS): A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.
Geotagging: Identification and storage of a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates.
Mash-up: A map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service.

Ancient Thinkers:
- Thales of Miletus (c.624-c.546BCE): Applied principles of geometry to measuring land area.
- Pythagoras (c.570-c.495BCE): Proposed a spherical world, arguing the sphere was the most perfect form.
- Eratosthenes (c.276-c.195BCE): Invented the word "geography", accepted that Earth was round, calculated its circumference within $0.5\%$ accuracy, divided Earth into five climatic regions, and described the known world.
- Ptolemy (c.100-c.170): Wrote the eight-volume Geographia, codified basic principles of mapmaking, and prepared maps not improved upon for more than 1,000 years.
Regional and Exploratory Developments:
- Chinese Geography: Yu Gong (written by an unknown author in the fifth century B.C.E. as a chapter in Shujing) described the economic resources of China's different provinces.
- Muslim Geography: Muhammad al-Idrisi (1100-1165) conducted extensive travels through Southwest Asia and North Africa to create a world map and geography text in 1154, building upon Ptolemy's work.
- Age of Exploration (16th Century): German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced the first map to use the label "America" (named after Amerigo the discoverer).

Geographic Grid: A system of imaginary arcs drawn in a grid pattern on Earth's surface.
Meridian and Longitude:
- Meridian: An arc drawn on a map between the North and South poles.
- Longitude: The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians, measuring distance east and west of the Prime Meridian; primarily used to calculate time.
Parallel and Latitude:
- Parallel: A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to meridians.
- Latitude: The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels, measuring distance north and south of the Equator.
Subdivisions: A degree of longitude or latitude is further subdivided into minutes and seconds.
Time Standards and Time Zones:
- GMT (Greenwich Mean Time): The master reference time for all points.
- UTC (Coordinated Universal Time): The time in the zone encompassing the Prime Meridian.
- Calculations: Traveling across $15^\circ$ of longitude equals one hour of time (or one time zone); Earth contains 24 time zones.
- International Date Line: Located at $180^\circ$ longitude; crossing heading east (toward America) moves the clock back 24 hours or one entire day.

Isoline Map: A map that connects points of a particular value by lines.
Dot Distribution Map: A map depicting data consisting of discrete observations, where each dot represents a specific number of observations.
Choropleth Map: A map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the variable.
Graduated Symbol Map: A map displaying places with symbols that change in size according to the value of the variable.