Intro to Human Geography

Question 1

What is geography?

Answer 1

The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use and industries

Question 2

How is the spherical world represented on a flat piece of paper?

Answer 2

Cartographers use a “projection” to morph the globe into 2D map

Question 3

What is the most popular type of projectiojn?

Answer 3

Mercator projection

Question 4

What is another type of projection?

Answer 4

Gall-Peters

Question 5

What are the pros and cons of the Mercator projection?

Answer 5

Pros: preserves the shape of countries, preserves direction
Cons: representation of size, racist and biased

Question 6

What are the pros and cons of the Gall-Peters projection?

Answer 6

Pros: sizes are accurate
Cons: shapes aren’t accurate

Question 7

Political Map

Answer 7

Political maps focus solely on the state and national boundaries of a place, and include locations of cities, both large and small, depending on the detail of the map

Question 8

A map showing the 50 US states and their borders along with the US north and south international borders

Answer 8

Political map

Question 9

Physical map

Answer 9

Map that shows the physical landscape features of a place, and shows things like mountains, rivers and lakes and water is always shown with blue. Greens show lower elevations while browns show high elevations

Question 10

Mountains and elevation changes are usually shown with different colors and shades to show relief

Answer 10

Physical map

Question 11

Topographic map

Answer 11

Similar to a physical map, shows different physical landscape features. Uses contour lines instead of colors to show changes in the landscape

Question 12

Contour lines show elevation changes and when lines are close together the terrain is steep

Answer 12

Topographic map

Question 13

Climate map

Answer 13

Shows information about the climate of an area

Question 14

Can show things like the specific climatic zones of an area based on the temperature, amount of snow an area receives or average number of cloudy days

Answer 14

Climate map

Question 15

Economic/Resource map

Answer 15

Shows the specific type of economic activity or natural resources present in an area through the use of different symbols or colors

Question 16

Road map

Answer 16

shows major/minor highways and roads as well as things like airports, city locations and points of interest like parks, campgrounds and monuments

Question 17

Major highways are generally red and larger, while minor roads are a lighter color and a narrower line

Answer 17

Road map

Question 18

Thematic map

Answer 18

A map that focuses on a particular theme or special topic and they do not just show natural features like rivers, cities, political subdivisions, elevation and highways

Question 19

Remote sensing

Answer 19

the acquisition of data about the earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the earth

scanners detect radiation being reflected from an area and are able to map changes in landscape quickly

Question 20

What does GPS mean

Answer 20

Global Positioning System

Question 21

What 3 elements does GPS in the US use?

Answer 21

1. GPS satellites are placed in predetermined orbits by the US military and private companies
2. Tracking stations to monitor and control satellites
3. If a receiver that can locate at least 4 satellites, can figure out distance to each, and use this information to pinpoint its own location

Question 22

What does GIS mean?

Answer 22

Geographic Information System

Question 23

What is GIS?

Answer 23

A computer system that captures, stores, analyzes and displays geographic data

Question 24

What can be used to produce maps that are more accurate?

Answer 24

GIS - geographic information systems