Introduction to geo

Question 1

define geography

Answer 1

It is scientific study of the Earth, describing and analyzing spatial and temporal variations of physical, biological and human phenomena and their interrelationships and dynamism over the surface of the earth

Question 2

what is the scope of geography?

Answer 2

It’s scope is the surface of the earth i.e a very thin zone including the atmoshpere, lithoshpere, hydroshpere and bioshpere which is the habitable zone humans can live in

Question 3

what are the two continuums geography can be approached with?

Answer 3

1. human-physical
   2.topical-regional

Question 4

human-physical continuum

Answer 4

a) human: concentrates on human activities and their interaction with their environments, i.e population distribution, culture, economics, and political systems
b) physical: focuses on natural environment and natural processes, i.e landforms, climate, vegetation, and ecosystems

Question 5

topical-regional continuum

Answer 5

a) topical (systematic) concerned with particular categories of physical and human phenomena
b) regional, concerned with the associations within regions of all or some of the elements

Question 6

how many basic themes does geography have and what are they

Answer 6

five basic themes : location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, region

Question 7

location

Answer 7

particular place or position it can be absolute or relative

Question 8

place

Answer 8

physical and human aspects of location. It is associated with
toponym : name of place
site: description of features of the place
situation: environmental conditions of the place
this concept helps to compare and contrast to places on Earth

Question 9

human-environmental interaction

Answer 9

There are three distinct aspects to it
a) Dependency: how humans are dependent on nature for a living
b) Adaptation: how humans adjust themselves to new environment and new challenges
c) Modification: deliberate alteration of the environment by human activities which allowed them to conquer the Earth

Question 10

movement

Answer 10

translocation of humans, their goods or ideas from one end of the planet to another

Question 11

region

Answer 11

geographic area having distinctive characteristics that distinguish it from adjacent units

Question 12

absolute location of
Ethiopia

Answer 12

3 degrees N (Moyale)
15 degrees N (Bademe - tip of tigray)
33 degrees E (Akobo)
48 degrees E(tip of ogaden)
Ethiopia is 15 degrees wide from east to west and 12 degrees long north to south

Question 13

size of Ethiopia

Answer 13

1,106,000 square kilometers
8th in Africa and 25th in the World
extends about 1,639 kilometers East-west and 1,577 kilometers North-South
0.7% of the country is covered by water bodies

Question 14

five types of shapes

Answer 14

compact shape: distance from borders to geographic centers doesn’t vary much
e.g., Ethiopia, zimbabwe, and Lesotho
fragmented: divided from their other parts by water, land or another country
eg: Uk, Greek
perforated: completely surrounding another country
eg: RSA
elongated: geographically long and relatively narrow
eg: chile
protrude: one portion much more elongated than the rest of the country
eg: eriteria, mynammar

Question 15

four most common measures of compactness

Answer 15

a) area-boundary ratio: ratio of area of a country to its boundary length, the higher the ratio the higher the degree of compactness
b) boundary-circumference ratio: ratio of boundary length of a country to circumference of a circle with the same area, the closer the ratio is to 1 the higher the degree of compactness
c) area-circumference ratio: ratio of area of a country to smallest inscribing circle. the higher the ratio the higher the degree of compactness
d) area-area ratio: ratio of area of a country to area of smallest inscribing circle. the closer the ratio is to 1 the more compact