Understanding Geography

Question 1

Define geography

Answer 1

the study of the earth’s surface, including climate, topography, vegetation, and population

Question 2

What is the spatial perspective?

Answer 2

the process of questioning in order to identify, explain, and predict the human and physical patterns of these spaces and how they’re connected

Question 3

List the two main branches of geography

Answer 3

human or cultural geography and physical geography

Question 4

Define human geography

Answer 4

examines humans and the culture they create relative to their space

Question 5

Define physical geography

Answer 5

examines the planet earth and everything part of the 4 spheres

Question 6

What are the 4 spheres?

Answer 6

atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere

Question 7

Name the 5 themes of geography

Answer 7

location, place, human-environment interaction, region, and movement

Question 8

What’s absolute location?

Answer 8

a position on the global grid with only one possible location, 85 degrees and 85 degrees west, 123 W Arroyo Drive, the Staples Center

Question 9

What’s relative location?

Answer 9

a location described in relation to the places around it, the actually location may not change, but it’s relative location will change if the places around it changes, say if the montebello town center turns into a school

Question 10

Define latitude

Answer 10

the parallel lines that run parallel and relative to the equator, which is 0 degrees

Question 11

How does latitude affect climate?

Answer 11

latitude doesn’t “affect” climate, but the position of latitude will determine the climate in relation to the sun and the exposure that location receives

Question 12

Define longitude

Answer 12

the lines that run north and south, intersect at the poles, and run relative to the prime meridian and international date line

Question 13

What is a meridian?

Answer 13

any line of longitude, which run in circles around the earth

Question 14

What is the prime meridian?

Answer 14

an arbitray line that runs through Greenwich and is 0 degrees, divides the world into eastern and western hemispheres

Question 15

What is the international date line?

Answer 15

the prime meridian’s antimeridian that is 180 degrees and starts the new day, it lies ahead of Russia and Australia

Question 16

Define place

Answer 16

a combination of the human and physical characteristics of a location, how

Question 17

What are human characteristics of place?

Answer 17

mountains, rivers, beaches, animals, plants, etc.

Question 18

What are physical characteristics of place?

Answer 18

architecture, structures, religion, language, artwork, etc.

Question 19

Define human-environment interaction

Answer 19

how humans adapt and modify their environment, whether good or bad

Question 20

Define region

Answer 20

an area that shares some soft of characteristic

Question 21

List the 3 types of regions

Answer 21

formal, functional, vernacular or perceptual

Question 22

Define formal region

Answer 22

uniform regions that have common cultural or physical features; places with official boundaries are formal, but so is a map that shows areas with the same climate or that practice the same religion

Question 23

Define functional region

Answer 23

nodal regions are defined by their connections, and are linked together by some fuction’s influence on them; a map of a flu epidemic, flight routes, paper or magazine subscription regions or rumors being spread are examples of functional regions

Question 24

Define vernacular region

Answer 24

areas that are grouped or determined by people’s beliefs; the south, where the cool kids sit, etc.

Question 25

Define movement

Answer 25

the migration of people, information, ideas, goods, etc. around the planet

Question 26

What is spatial interaction?

Answer 26

the way places interact with each other through movement, it’s always affected by distance, nearer places interact more with each other

Question 27

What is friction of distance?

Answer 27

the way distance interferes with spatial interaction, I can’t easily visit an artist in Chicago because of the miles, but this friction has been reduced with advances in transportation and communication

Question 28

What is space-time compression?

Answer 28

the increased connection between people and places because of technological advances, perceived distance is shorten, but physical distance is not

Question 29

What is distance decay?

Answer 29

the decline in interaction between two places as distance separates them, greater distance leads to less interaction

Question 30

What are the New Standards of Geographic Education?

Answer 30

published in 1994, what geographically informed people should know

Question 31

What categories do the National Geography Standards cover?

Answer 31

The World in Spatial Terms, Places and Regions, Physical Systems, Human Systems, Environment and Society, and The Uses of Geography