Geography Introduction.

What is Geography?

In basic terms, geography is the study of the surface of the world. It shows the relationship between the environments and the people. 

Simple Geography of the World

There are 7 continents and 5 oceans in the world. 

Continents (matching with number):

1. North America
2. South America
3. Europe
4. Africa
5. Asia
6. Oceania
7. Antarctica

Oceans (number 1 would be 8):

1. Pacific Ocean
2. Atlantic Ocean
3. Arctic Ocean
4. Indian Ocean
5. Southern Ocean

5 themes of geography-

• Location
  • The place where something is located
  • It could be classified further into absolute location, or relative location
  • Absolute Location: Exact coordinates of a place
  • Relative Location: Describes the landmarks around a certain place
• Place
  • What is the place like?
  • This includes: Physical features or Human environment
  • Physical features include: Climate (hot/cold), Landforms (mountains, lakes, etc.)
  • Human environments include: Population size, Things that the people do there, etc.
• Human Interaction(with the Environment)
  • The ways in which the environment affected us, and the ways in which we've changed the environment
  • Examples: We've affected the environment via pollution, cutting trees, industrialization
  • Environment affected us by: providing us access to different resources, agriculture, different places/landforms
• Movement
  • The way in which people, ideas, and goods move from one place to another
  • Examples from today: K-pop (Korea to world), Anime (Japan to world)
• Region
  • The groupings of countries depending on similar cultures, languages, landforms, and more
  • Example: Egypt might geographically be in Africa, but people might see it as a part of the Middle East because it's culturally related to them more.

Miscellaneous Information about Geography:

• Barriers and Conduits

  • Barriers are a hassle for people, they would limit movement and prevent interactions with people
  • Examples of Barriers: Mountains, Deserts, Oceans
  • China and India: Himalaya Mountains were hard to get across, so there was limited communication between the 2 countries in the past
  • Conduits help people interact with each other, they promote movement
  • Examples of Conduits: Oasis (fertile spot in a desert), Trade winds, Mountain pass

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• Landforms

  • A natural/artificial feature of earth, or it's the way a place is presented (how the terrain looks)
  • Examples of main ones would be: mountains, oceans, valleys, volcanos, plains, plateaus, deserts

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• Two themes of Humanity (the ways in which people move)

  • Convergence
  • Coming together to a same area
    • This saying, people would bring different ideas/cultures, etc. and share them with each other.
    • Example: Trading 
  • Divergence
  • People spreading out to different places
    • People from the same area would spread out to other areas, bringing their ideas along with them
    • Example: As humans, we all started off in Africa, and slowly spread out, each one of us developing different traits and such.

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• Parts of a Globe

  • Latitude and Longitude
  • These are the invisible lines on the globe, but on some maps, they're drawn out so that we could pinpoint an exact location, or the coordinates of a place, on a map
  • Latitude are the lines that go horizontally, from West to East
  • Longitude are the vertical lines that go from pole to pole, or from North to South
  • To write coordinates, we usually write the latitude first, then longitude (Latitude, Longitude)
  • Equator
  • The central latitude (horizontal) line that is basically 0 degrees, separating the North and the South of the Globe
  • Equally distant from the North/South Poles
  • Prime Meridian
  • The central longitude (vertical) that is also basically 0 degrees, but separating the West and East of the Globe
  • North Pole
  • It's the northmost part of the world, at the very top.
  • Basically the whole of Arctic
  • South Pole
  • Opposite of the North Pole, it's the southernmost part of the world, at the very bottom.
  • It's basically the whole of Antarctica
  • Northern Hemisphere
  • North of the Equator, it's the northern parts of the world
  • Latitude wise, it's 0 to 90 degrees N
  • Southern Hemisphere
  • South of the Equator, meaning that it's the southern parts of the world
  • Latitude wise, it's 0 to -90 degrees S
  • Eastern Hemisphere
  • Separated by the Prime Meridian, it's the Eastern side of the world
  • Longitude wise, it's 0 to 180 degrees E
  • Western Hemisphere
  • Again, separated by the Prime Meridian, it's the Western side of the world
  • Longitude wise, it's 0 to -180 degrees W

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