Skills Notes

Question 1

What is direction?

Answer 1

Direction is expressed for general cases using the 16 compass coordinates

Question 2

How do you find bearings?

Answer 2

Place the base point of the protractor on the spot you’re starting from, making sure the baseline is vertical.
Read the bearing from the numbers on the outside of the protractor.

Question 3

How do you find area references?

Answer 3

Finding the 4 digit coordinates of the bottom left-hand corner of the square.
The easting (vertical line) comes first and then the northing (horizontal line)
When a feature goes over two squares write down the area reference for both squares

Question 4

What are grid references?

Answer 4

References with 6 digits, the 3rd shows how far across the feature is located and the 6th shows how high up the feature is located on a scale of 0 - 9.
When finding a GR for an area find the GR for the middle of that area

Question 5

What is scale and distance?

Answer 5

Scale is used to shrink the real world onto a map.
It can be represented as: a linear scale which works well when 1cm lines up with 1km or ratio scales which have to be converted.
Distance is the length of space between two points

Question 6

How do you correctly measure distance?

Answer 6

When measuring distance, align the zero on the ruler in the middle of the feature to the middle of the other feature
Be as accurate as possible when measuring distance using string

Question 7

What is latitude and longitude?

Answer 7

Latitude lines are horizontal but are expressed as north and south and longitude lines are vertical but are expressed as east and west.
A place belongs to the latitude line above it and a place belongs to the longitude line on its left
Australia is always South latitude and east longitude
One degree of longitude or latitude is broken up into sixty minutes

Question 8

What is the gradient?

Answer 8

The gradient is equal to the steepness of a slope
It’s shown as a rise over run
Make sure both measurements are in metres
It can be expressed as a fraction, ratio or in words

Question 9

What is aspect?

Answer 9

Aspect refers to the direction the slope faces
If I was standing on that slope facing downhill, in which direction would I be looking?
When finding aspects it’s important to check where the north is northerly/southerly/easterly/westerly aspect

Question 10

What is relief?

Answer 10

The relief of an area is the variation in the height of the land
It is found using contour lines
When an area has two contour lines going through it, you take the highest height and subtract it from the lower height

Question 11

How is density expressed?

Answer 11

As the number of features per km2
It is calculated by dividing the number of features over the km2

Question 12

What are the aspects of synoptic charts?

Answer 12

Also known as a weather map that records the weather conditions being experienced across part of the earth’s surface at a given time.
They include isobars, rainfall, wind, the pressure system and the front being experienced in a certain place.

Question 13

How is area calculated?

Answer 13

Area in regular shapes is expressed as length x width
The area is found in irregular shapes using the ‘grid square method’
This is conducted when we count the full and partial squares separately
Make a total of the full and partial squares
Divide the total of the partial squares by two
Add it to the total of full squares

Question 14

What are isobars?

Answer 14

Isobars are lines that join places of equal air pressure
The space between isobars indicates how strong the winds are, if they are far apart the wind is weak and vice versa
The number on the isobar calculates the air pressure, when a place is in between isobars the most accurate way to express it is to use the terms greater than and less than

Question 15

How is rainfall represented?

Answer 15

Rainfall which is represented by lines going in the same direction

Question 16

What do wind indicators show?

Answer 16

Wind indicators show wind direction and speed
Direction is shown by the way the tail faces
The marks on the end of the tail indicate speed, the exact speed is given in the key

Question 17

What is the difference between low and high pressure systems?

Answer 17

Low-pressure systems or cyclones contain air that moves in a clockwise direction
High-pressure systems or anticyclones contain air that moves in an anti-clockwise direction

Question 18

What’s the difference between cold fronts and warm fronts?

Answer 18

Cold fronts are when cooler air moves to meet warmer air. They can be understood using the key. They generally bring bad weather
Warm fronts are when warm air meets cooler air. They are also understood using the key. They generally bring good weather

Question 19

Explain the two main types of maps

Answer 19

Choropleth maps use different colour shades to show the amount or value of something. Darker shades represent higher concentrations and lighter shades show the lower ones.
Topographic maps show the shape of the land using contour lines and the features that are located in that environment

Question 20

What are the types and aspects of graphs?

Answer 20

Graphs are drawn using information from a table
They are drawn using BOLTSS and can be column or line
Climate graphs use column and line graphs to represent average rainfall and average temperature over a period of time. They have two separate scales, the line graph is for temperature and uses the scale on the left, the column graph is for precipitation and uses the scale on the right
Pie charts/circular graphs/sector graphs show proportions of a total very quickly and make it easy to compare one proportion to another

Question 21

What are the types of images?

Answer 21

Ground-level photographs look at a subject horizontally
Vertical aerial photographs look straight down on a subject
Oblique aerial photographs look at the subject from an angle
Satellite images are photographs taken from a satellite

Question 22

What is a population pyramid?

Answer 22

A population pyramid is a graph that shows the distribution of ages across a population divided down the centre between male and female members

Question 23

What are contour lines?

Answer 23

Contour lines are drawn on topographic maps to indicate height above sea level
The closer the contour lines are to each other the steeper the slope
Contour intervals can be found on the map or shown on the key