Ch.1 Basic Concepts Vocab

Question 0

Atmosphere

Answer 0

The thin layer of gases surrounding Earth

Question 1

Abiotic

Answer 1

Composed of nonliving or inorganic matter

Question 2

Biosphere

Answer 2

All living organisms on Earth, including plants and animals, as well as microorganisms

Question 3

Biotic

Answer 3

Composed of living organisms

Question 4

Cartography

Answer 4

The science of map making

Question 5

Climate

Answer 5

The long-term average weather condition at a particular location

Question 6

Concentration

Answer 6

The spread over a given area

Question 7

Connection

Answer 7

Relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space

Question 8

Conservation

Answer 8

The sustainable management of a natural resource

Question 9

Contagious Diffusion

Answer 9

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population

Question 10

Cultural Ecology

Answer 10

A geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships

Question 11

Cultural Landscape

Answer 11

The fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group

Question 12

Culture

Answer 12

The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group’s distinct tradition

Question 13

Density

Answer 13

The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area

Question 14

Diffusion

Answer 14

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

Question 15

Distance Decay

Answer 15

The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin

Question 16

Distribution

Answer 16

The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface

Question 17

Ecology

Answer 17

The scientific study of ecosystems

Question 18

Ecosystem

Answer 18

A group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact

Question 19

Environmental Determinism

Answer 19

A nineteenth - and early twentieth - century approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws daughter by human geographers could be found in the physical environment caused by human activities

Question 20

Expansion Diffusion

Answer 20

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an additive process

Question 21

Formal Region

Answer 21

An area in which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristic

Question 22

Functional Region

Answer 22

An area organized around a node or focal point

Question 23

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Answer 23

A computer system thy stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data

Question 24

Geographic Information Science (GIScience)

Answer 24

The development and analysis of data about earth acupressure through satellite and other electronic information technologies

Question 25

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Answer 25

A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers