AP HuG Terms Units 1-3

Absolute Location: The exact position of a place on the earth's surface, usually measured in latitude and longitude coordinates, such as $34.0522^\circ N, 118.2437^\circ W$ .
Relative Location: The position of a place in relation to another place (e.g., "next to the post office").
Map Scale: The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface. It is often represented as a fraction or ratio, such as $1:24,000$ .
Geographic Information Systems (GIS): A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data using layers.
Global Positioning System (GPS): A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites.
Remote Sensing: The acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods.

Formal Region: An area in which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics (e.g., a state like Montana or a climate region).
Functional (Nodal) Region: An area organized around a node or focal point (e.g., the circulation area of a newspaper).
Vernacular (Perceptual) Region: An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity (e.g., "The American South").
Distance Decay: The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.
Space-Time Compression: The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems.

Crude Birth Rate (CBR): The total number of live births in a year for every $1,000$ people alive in the society.
Crude Death Rate (CDR): The total number of deaths in a year for every $1,000$ people alive in the society.
Natural Increase Rate (NIR): The percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as $(CBR - CDR) \div 10$ .
Total Fertility Rate (TFR): The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years (approximately ages $15$ through $49$ ).
Dependency Ratio: The number of people under age $15$ and over age $64$ compared to the number of people active in the labor force.

Stage 1: Low Growth
- High $CBR$ and high $CDR$ result in low $NIR$ .
Stage 2: High Growth
- Rapidly declining $CDR$ and high $CBR$ produce high $NIR$ .
Stage 3: Moderate Growth
- $CBR$ begins to decline; $CDR$ continues to decline slowly.
Stage 4: Low Growth
- Very low $CBR$ and $CDR$ produce virtually no long-term natural increase and possibly a decrease.

Push Factors: Factors that induce people to leave old residences (e.g., war, lack of jobs).
Pull Factors: Factors that induce people to move to a new location (e.g., safety, economic opportunity).
Internally Displaced Person (IDP): Someone who has been forced to migrate for similar political reasons as a refugee but has not migrated across an international border.
Chain Migration: Migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously settled there.

Culture: The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group's distinct tradition.
Folk Culture: Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.
Popular Culture: Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.
Ethnocentrism: Distinguishing one's own culture as superior to others.
Cultural Relativism: The practice of judging a culture by its own standards rather than through the lens of one’s own culture.

Relocation Diffusion: The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.
Expansion Diffusion: The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an additive process. Broken down into:
- Hierarchical Diffusion: The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.
- Contagious Diffusion: The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.
- Stimulus Diffusion: The spread of an underlying principle even though a specific characteristic is rejected.

Lingua Franca: A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.
Universalizing Religions: Religions that attempt to be global and to appeal to all people, wherever they may live (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Buddhism).
Ethnic Religions: Religions with a relatively concentrated spatial distribution whose principles are likely to be based on the physical characteristics of the particular location in which its adherents are concentrated (e.g., Hinduism, Judaism).
Acculturation: The process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups, each of which retains distinct culture features.
**Assimilation: The process by which individuals or groups adopt the cultural traits or social patterns of another group, often resulting in the loss of original cultural identity. This can occur voluntarily or involuntarily, leading to significant transformations in language, customs, and traditions.