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APHumGeo U1
Unit 1: Thinking Geographically
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Human Geography | The study of the distribution of the humans and their activities on the surface of the earth and the processes that generate these distributions |
Physical Geography | studies the structures, processes, distributions and change through the time of the natural phenomena of the earth's surface |
Spatial | pertaining to the space on the earth's surface; sometimes used as a synonym for geographic |
Aggregation | The level of detail for dividing a thematic map into geographic units, ranging from coarse division (countries) to a fine division (zip codes) |
Accessibility | The relative ease with which a destination may be reached from some other place |
Attribute | A characteristic or quality of a thing |
Connectivity | The degree of economic, social, cultural, or political connection between two places |
Cartogram | A type of thematic map that transforms space such that the political unit with the greatest value for some type of data is represented by the largest relative area |
Cartography | The science of map making. Early Cartographers: Ptolemy, Abraham Ortelius, Gerardus Mercator |
Diffusion | The spatial spreading or dissemination of a cultural element or some other phenomenon |
Contagious Diffusion | the distance-controlled spreading of an idea, innovation or some other item through a local population by contact from person to person - analogy to contagious illness |
Expansion Diffusion | A process in which the items being diffused remain and often intensify in the origin area as new areas are being affected |
Hierarchal Diffusion | Diffusion of a disease, cultural trait, idea, or innovation from larger to smaller places (i.e., urban hierarchy) |
Relocation Diffusion | A process in which items being diffused leave the originated areas as they move to new areas, i.e., the items diffuse with people migrating |
Stimulus Diffusion | A form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place |
Absolute Direction | Bearings expressed using compass rose and (N, E, S, W). May be calculated with a compass |
Relative Direction | Bearings expressed in relation to vectors and axes (left. right, up, down) |
Dispersion/Concentration | The spreading of redistribution of ideas, goods and people/ to bring people, goods and ideas toward a common center |
Distance | The measurement of the physical space between two places |
Friction of Distance | A measure of how much absolute distance affects the interaction between 2 places |
Distortion | To twist or stretch out of the original or normal shape, as in creating a flat map from the spherical shape of the earth |
Distribution | The division, sharing and delivery of goods, people, services and ideas |
Environmental Determinism | The view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life, including cultural development |
Equator | 0(degree) latitude, divides the northern and southern hemispheres |
Geocaching | A hunt for a cache using the GPS coordinates which are placed on the internet by other geocachers |
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) | A computer hardware and software system that handles geographically referenced data. A GIS uses and produces maps and has the ability to perform many types of spatial analysis |
Global Positioning System | A set of satellites used to help determine location anywhere on the earth's surface with a portable electronic device |
Globalization |