Chapter 1 Flashcards
Arithmetic density
The total number of objects in an area, commonly used to compare the distribution of population.
Base line
East west lines separating townships.
Cartography
The science of mapmaking.
Concentration
The extent of a feature’s spread over space.
Connections
Relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.
Contagious diffusion
The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.
Cultural Ecology
The geographic study of human environment relationships.
Cultural landscape
A combination of cultural features such as language and religion, economic features such as agriculture and industry, and physical gestures such as climate and vegetation.
Culture
The body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.
Density
The frequency with which something occurs in space.
Diffusion
The process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time.
Distance decay
Usually, the farther away one group is from another, the less likely the two groups are to interact.
Distribution
The arrangement of a feature in space.
Environmental determinism
The physical environment caused social development.
Expansion Diffusion
The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process.
Formal region
An area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics.
Functional region
An area organized around a node or focal point.
Geographic information system (GIS)
A computer system that can capture, store, query, analyze, and display geographic data (in layers).
Global Positioning System (GPS)
A system that accurately determines the precise position of something on earth.
Agricultural density
The number of farmers per unit of farmland.
Globalization
A force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope.
Greenwich mean time (GMT)
The time at the prime meridian (0 longitude). The master reference time for all points on earth.
Hearth
The place from which an innovation originates.
Hierarchical diffusion
The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.
International date line
Mostly follows 180 longitude, moves clock back 24 hours if you are headed east for America.
Land ordinance of 1785
It divided most of US into a system of townships and ranges to facilitate the sale of land to settlers in the west.
Latitude
The numbering system to indicate the location of a parallel.
Location
The posture on that some bring occupies on earth’s surface.
Longitude
The distance of a place east or west of the meridian at Greenwich.
Map
A two dimensional or flat scale model of the earths surface, or a portion of it.
Meridian
An arc drawn between north and south poles.
Parallel
A circle drawn around the globe, parallel to the equator, and right angle to the meridians.
Pattern
The geometric arrangement of objects in space.
Physiology density
The number of persons per unit of area suitable for agriculture.
Place
A specific pint on earth distinguished by a particular characteristic.
Polder
A piece of land that is created by draining water from an area.
Possibilism
The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment.
Prime meridian
The meridian that passes through the royal observatory at Greenwhich, England, is 0 longitude.
Principal meridian
North south lines separating townships.
Projection
The scientific method of transferring locations on Earths surface to a flat map.
Region
An area of earth distinguished by a distinctive combination of cultural and physical features.
Regional studies
Each region has its own distinctive landscape that results from a unique combination of so ail relationships and physical properties.
Relocation diffusion
The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.
Remote sensing
The acquisition of data about earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting earth or from other long distance methods.
Resource
Substance that are useful to people, economically and technological feasible to access, and socially acceptable to use.
Scale
The relationship between the portion of earth being studied and earth as a whole.
Sections
Township divided in 36 sections, 1•1 mile, numbered in order from northeast to southeast.
Site
The physical character of a place.
Situation
The location of a place relative to other places.
Space
The physical gap or interval between two objects.
Space time compression
The reduction in time I takes for something to reach another place.
Stimulus diffusion
The spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse. (McDonalds in India)
Toponym
The name given to a place on earth.
Township
A square 6 miles on each side in this system.
Transitional corporation
Conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters and principal shareholders are.
Uneven development
The increasing gap in economic conditions between regions in the core and periphery that results from the globalization of the economy.
Vernacular region
A place people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.
