Download AP Human Geography

Geography
Unit 1
Chapter 1
Geographers
Toolbox
Thinking Globally
 “Geo”-earth
 “graphy”-to write
 Geographers ask “where” things are and “why” they are
there
 Geography-The study of the distribution and
interaction of physical and human features on the
earth.
Geography
 Physical Geography-focus
on natural environment.
 The earth’s natural
phenomena, like soil,
plants, climate and
topography.
 This is what most think of
when they think
Geography.
 Human Geography-focus
on people.
 Processes, and locations of
the earth’s human
creations and their
interactions.
Looking at the earth
 Continents
 County
 State/province/territory
 Islands
 Oceans
The World
Notable early mapmakers
 Aristotle(384-322BC)-first to demonstrate the earth
was round.
 Eratosthenes(276-194 BC)-first person to use the word
Geography.
 Ptolemy (AD 100-170) –first book of maps
 Al-Idrisi-prepared a world map and geography text in
1154.
The Science of Mapmaking
 Cartographer-A person
who makes maps
 How do you know where
things are without a
map?
Maps and Map Symbols
 Scale
 Compass Rose
 Symbols
 Title
 Key/Legend
 Color
Maps
 Maps-a two dimensional or flat scale model of the
earth’s surface
 Globe-scale model of the earth
 Great Circle Route-shortest distance between 2 points
on the earth
Types of Maps
During the course of the year we will look at all types of
maps, here are a few:
 Thematic
 Flow-line
 Chloropleth
 Dot Density
 Proportional
 Symbol thematic
 Reference
 Isoline Thematic
 Cognative or mental maps
Map Projections
 Projections are the
scientific method of
transferring locations on
the Earth’s surface to a
flat map.
 Think of a projection of
making the skin of an
orange lay flat.
Four types of distortions can
occur:
1. shape of an area is distorted.
2. distance between two points
may increase or decrease.
3. relative size of different areas
may be altered.
4. Direction from one place to
another can be distorted.
Classes of Maps
 Cylindrical-shows true direction but loses distance.
 Planar-shows true direction and examines the earth
from one point.
 Conic-cone over the earth, loses direction but keeps
distance intact.
 Oval-combination of cylindrical and conic
Contemporary Tools for Mapping
Geographic
Information
Systems (GIS)
• Information on a location is
stored in layers.
• Layers can be viewed individually
or combined.
Remote Sensing
• Remote sensing satellites scan the
earth.
• Google maps
Global Positioning
Systems (GPS)
• Accurately determines the precise
position of something on earth.
• Originally designed for aircraft
and ships, now available for autos.
Five Themes
of Geography
 Location
 Human/Environment
Interactions
 Regions
 Place
 Movement
Location
 How do Geographers know where things are?
Absolute Location: refers to a position on the global grid.
Relative Location: a location as described in relation to
places around it.
Absolute or Mathematical Location
 Mathematical location-location described by
meridians and parallels, otherwise known as latitude
and longitude.
Absolute location is unique for each place on earth.
 The absolute location of the ACC radio tower.
 Latitude: 29-24'02'' N
Longitude: 095-12'14'' W
Latitude and Longitude
 Meridians or longitude
 Parallels or Latitude
 Prime Meridian
 GMT-Greenwich Mean Time
 International Date line
 Equator
 Hemispheres
Latitude and Longitude
Place-Unique location of a
feature
Why is each point on Earth Unique?
Four ways to identify a place on earth by it’s location.
1. Place name
Toponym or name to distinguish them from others.
Some names reflect history—New York
Some reflect the founder-Alvin-Alvin Morgan
Some are reflective-Three Rivers
Site
2. Site- physical character of a place
Climate
Topography
soil
water resources
Vegetation
elevation
.
Situation
3. Situation-location of a place relative to another place.
This characteristic refers to relative location.
Human
Environment
Interaction
People and
their
environment.
Environmental Modification
 Changes to environment to suit people.
Movement
 Interconnections between areas
 What connects people and places
 How do people move from one place
To another?
Regions
The organization
of the earth’s
surface into
distinct areas that
are viewed as
different from
other areas.
Types of regions
 There are three types of regions:
1. Formal region
2. Functional Region
3. Vernacular or perceptual region
Formal Region
 Other wise known as uniform or homogeneous region.
 Everyone within the region shares in common one or
more distinctive characteristics.
 Creation of a state or province is a formal region
Formal regions
 The North America Wheat Belt is a formal region.
 Persons in the USA who vote Republican or
Democratic .
Functional Region
 Functional or Nodal Regions are organized
around a core, node or focal point.
 Geographers use functional regions to
display information about economic areas.
 Newspaper circulation
 TV Station reception area
 People in our are who follow the Texans.
Functional region
 The core area has distinct characteristics that lessen in
intensity as one travels to the periphery, or the region’s
margins.
 Traveling West from Denver
persons will venture to the
periphery of Salt Lake City.
Perceptual or Vernacular Regions
 They are places that people believe to exist as part of
their cultural identity.
 The reflect feelings and images more than any
objective reality.
Globalization
 A force or process that involves the entire world and
results in making something worldwide in scope.
 Human activities are rarely confined to one location.
 Multinational Corporation-located in
more than one country. Can affect the
culture of other nations.
Distribution
 Distribution-the arrangement of a feature in space
 Density-frequency in which something occurs
.
Distribution, cont.
 Concentration-the extent of a features spread over
space.
 Are they clustered (close together)?
 Are they dispersed (far apart) ?
 Concentration is not the same as density. You can have
the same density but different concentrations. Think
housing in communities.
Distribution, cont.
 Pattern-the geometric arrangement of objects in space.
 Some are geometric-houses on a street are linear.
 Some are random and irregular
China
Spatial interaction
 Historically-settlers,
explorers created
interaction between
locations
 Today- Airplanes,
computers, Television,
internet

Distance Decay-the farther
away one group is from
another group, the less
likely they are to interact
with each other.
Electronic communication
Has lessened this concept.
Diffusion of culture and economy
 North America, Western Europe and Japan are the
centers of global culture and economy.