Ch. 1 Vocab Flashcards
The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communication and transportation systems
Space-Time Compression
The spread of something over a given area
Concentration
Geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships
Cultural Ecology
An area organized around a node or focal point
Functional Region
A company that conducts research, operates factories and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located
Transnational Corporation
Generally, the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole; specifically, the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature of the Earth’s surface
Scale
The acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods
Remote Sensing
The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another
Relocation Diffusion
The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the euqator
Latitude
An east-west line designated under the Land Ordinance of 1785 to facilitate the surveying and numbering of townships in the US
Base Line
Relationships among people and objects across the barriers of space
Connections
A nineteenth - and early twentieth - century approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human activities
Environmental Determinism
The frequency with which something exist within a given unit of area
Density
An arc that for the most part follows 180 degrees longitude, although it deviates in several places to avoid dividing land areas
International Date Line (IDL)
The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface
Distribution
The physical character of a place
Site
The location to a place relative to another place
Situation
The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface
Toponym
A circle around the globe parallel to the equator and at a right angle to the meridians
Parallel
A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes and displays geographic data
Geographic Information System (GIS)
An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area
Regional Studies (or cultural landscapes)
An arc drawn on a map between the North and South Poles
Meridian
The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy
Uneven Development
The time in that zone encompassing the prime meridian or 0 degrees longitude
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
An area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics
Formal Region (or uniform or homogeneous region)
A specific point on earth distinguished by a particular character
Place
A substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access . and is socially acceptable
Resource
The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process
Expansion Diffusion
An area that people believe exists as a part of their cultural identity
Vernacular Region (or perceptual region)
A representation of a portion of Earth’s surface based on what an individual knows about a place, containing personal impressions of what is in a place and where places are located
Mental Map
The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected
Stimulus Diffusion
The number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture
Physiological Density
A square normally one mile on a side. The Land Ordinance of 1785 divided townships in the US into 36 sections
Section
Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group
Cultural Landscape
A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of the Earth’s surface, or a portion of it
Map
The geometric or regular arrangements of something in a study area
Pattern
The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or place
Hierarchical Diffusion
A law that divided the US into townships to facilitate the sale of land to settlers
Law Ordinance of 1785
A system that determines the precise location of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and recievers
Global Positioning System (GPS)
The ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of land suitable for agriculture
Agricultural Density
The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population
Contagious Diffusion
The theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives
Possibilism
The meridian, designated at 0 degrees longitude, that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England
Prime Meridian
The total number of people divided by the total land area
Arithmetic Density
The region from which innovative ideas originate
Hearth
The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group’s distinct religion
Culture
The physical gap or interval between two objects
Space
An area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features
Regions
A square normally six miles on a side. The Land Ordinance of 1785 divided much of the US into a series of townships
Townships
Land created by the Dutch by draining water from an area
Polder
The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the Prime Meridian
Longitude
The science of making maps
Cartography
The position of anything on Earth’s surface
Location
The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time
Diffusion
The system used to transfer locations from Earth’s surface to a flat map
Projection
A north-south line designated in the Land Ordinance of 1785 to facilitate the surveying and numbering of townships in the US
Principal Meridian
Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope
Globaliztion
The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin
Distance Decay
