Unit 1: Thinking Geographically Flashcards

Question

International Date Line

Answer 1

an arc that for the most part follows 180º longitude, although it deviates in several place to avoid dividing land areas. When you cross it heading east, the clock moves back 24 hours, and when you cross it going west the calendar moves ahead one day

Answer 2

a thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value

Answer 3

the numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the Equator

Answer 4

the numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the Prime Meridian

Answer 5

(cognitive map) the map like image of the world, country, region, city, or neighborhood a person carries in mind. Based on personal memories and changes over time as a person creates greater connections with the places they live

Answer 6

a projection of a map of the world onto a cylinder in such a way that all the parallels of latitude have the same length as the equator, used especially for marine charts and certain climatological maps.

Answer 7

line of longitude

Answer 8

an area that people believe to exist as part of their cultural identity, depends on personal experiences or thoughts eg. the Midwest looks different for everyone

Answer 9

the number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture.

Answer 10

a specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic, human or physical ex. physical features, political system, language, religion

Answer 11

the name given to a portion of Earth’s surface can be cultural, descriptive, named after important people, etc

Answer 12

a cartographic projection of the sphere in which the point of sight is at the center and the plane of projection passes through one of the polar circles

Answer 13

the theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action form many alternatives.

Answer 14

an imaginary line passing through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, serving by agreement as the 0º line of longitude

Answer 15

the system used to transfer locations from Earth’s surface to a flat map

Answer 16

the position of a place or activity in relation to other places or activities; implies spatial relationships and usually suggests the relative advantages or disadvantages of a location with respect to all competing locations.

Answer 17

the acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or other long-distance methods

Answer 18

the size of an area, from local to global Different on a map from the scale of analysis ex. a map showing the US's income per capita by state has a national scale (showing the whole US), but a sub-national scale of analysis (showing the data by state)

Answer 19

successive habitation of same area over time; builds layer after layer in the region

Answer 20

the physical character of a place; the absolute location of a place or activity described by local relief, landform, and other physical characteristics

Answer 21

the relative location of a place or activity in relation to the physical and cultural characteristics of the larger regional or spatial system of which it is a part; the location of a place relative to other places

Answer 22

of or pertaining to space on or near Earth’s surface. Often a synonym for geographical and used as an adjective to describe specific geographic concepts or processes

Answer 23

a map that demonstrates a particular feature or a single variable. Four types: dot, isoline, choropleth, and proportional symbol

Answer 24

a geographic region within which the same standard time is used.

Answer 25

an influence on the rate of expansion diffusion of an idea, observing that the spread or acceptance of an idea is usually delayed as distance from the source of the innovation increases

Answer 26

introduced the contemporary culture landscape, sometimes called the regional studies approach; “Among the connections that tie people to a certain environment, one of the most tenacious is food supply; clothing and weapons are more subject to modification than the dietary regime, which experience has shown to be best suited to human needs in a given climate.”

Answer 27

best known as an extensive traveler or explorer, whose account documents his travels and side-excursions over a period of almost thirty years, covering some 73,000 miles (117,000 km). This journeying covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world, extending also to present-day India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and China, a distance readily surpassing that of his prior, near-contemporary and traveler Marco Polo.

Answer 28

a sociologist at the University of Chicago, developed the concentric-zone model in 1925 with five zones; a city grows outward from a central area in a series of concentric rings, like the growth rings of a tree.

Answer 29

German geographer who in the early 1930s first formulated central-place theory as a series of models designed to explain the spatial distribution of urban centers. Crucial to his theory is the fact that different goods and services vary both in threshold and in range

Answer 30

an American geographer, geologist and meteorologist, often called the "father of American geography". His most influential scientific contribution was the cycle of erosion, first defined around 1884, which was a model of how rivers create landforms. Though the cycle is considered overly simplistic today, it was a crucial early contribution to geomorphology. It suggests that (larger) rivers have three main sections: upper course, middle course, and lower course- each of which has distinct landforms and other properties associated with it.

Answer 31

coined the name geography: geo meaning “the earth” and graphein meaning “to write.” He is noted for devising a system of latitude and longitude, and for being the first known to have calculated the size of the Earth within a remarkable 0.5 percent accuracy. He prepared one of the earliest maps of the known world

Answer 32

He is almost exclusively known for writing The Histories, a collection of 'inquiries' about the different places and peoples he encountered during his wide ranging travels around the Mediterranean littoral and into Mesopotamia. He took as the unifying theme for this work the conflict between the ancient Greeks and the Persians or 'Medes'

Answer 33

a prominent American geographer. He is the author of The Nature of Geography (1939) and Perspective on the Nature of Geography (1959)

Answer 34

an economist who studied housing data for 142 American cities, presented his sector model of urban land use in 1939. he maintained that high-rent residential districts were instrumental in shaping the land-use structure of the city. Because these areas were reinforced by transportation routes, the pattern of their development was one of sectors or wedges, not concentric zones

Answer 35

he is considered one of the founders of modern geography work on botanical geography was foundational to the field of biogeography; set about the task of collecting and analyzing data about the relationships between the spatial distribution of rocks, plants, and animals.

Answer 36

one of the best known U.S. proponents of Ratzel’s ideas; argued that climate was a major determinant of civilization; according to him climate of maritime northwestern Europe produced greater human efficiency as measured by better health conditions, lower death rates, and higher standards of living.

Answer 37

proposed the heartland theory in the early twentieth century based on environmental determinism, the heartland theory addresses the balance of power in the world and, in particular, the possibility of world conquest based on natural habitat advantage. It held that the Eurasian continent was the most likely base from which to launch a successful campaign for world conquest.

Answer 38

English economist and cleric was the most famous pioneer observer of population growth with the publishing in 1798 of An Essay on the Principle of Population, known as the “dismal essay.” He believed that the human ability to multiply far exceeds our ability to increase food production. He maintained that “a strong and constantly operating check on population” will necessarily act as a natural control on numbers. He regarded famine, disease, and war as the inevitable outcome of the human population’s outstripping the food supply.

Answer 39

wrote The Four Traditions of Geography: Earth science tradition, human-environment tradition, regional / landscape, and spatial tradition

Answer 40

main work is his Geographia. This too is a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time; devised and provided instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world and of the Roman provinces

Answer 41

a German trained in Biology and Chemistry who originated geopolitical theory in the late 1800’s; greatly influenced by the theories of social Darwinism. He stated seven laws of state growth; the model portrays the state as behaving like a biological organism; thus, its growth and change are seen as “natural” and inevitable; pioneered the belief of environmental determinism

Answer 42

he is considered one of the founders of modern geography; In his view, "geography was a kind of physiology and comparative anatomy of the earth: rivers, mountains, glaciers, &c., were so many distinct organs, each with its own appropriate functions; and, as his physical frame is the basis of the man, determinative to a large extent of his life, so the structure of each country is a leading element in the historic progress of the nation;" His 20-volumne Erdkunde was a monumental work of comparison and classification; He and von Humboldt urged human geographers to adopt the methods of scientific inquiry used by natural scientists.

Answer 43

in 1960 proposed a widely cited model for economic advancement. Generalizing on the “sweep of modern history,” he theorized that all developing economies may pass through five successive stages of growth and advancement.

Answer 44

conducted pioneering research on the origins and dispersal of plant and animal domestication, was one of the first t propose that the process of domestication was independently invented at many different times and locations. He believed that domestication did not develop in response to hunger. He maintained that necessity was not the mother of agricultural invention, because starving people must spend every waking hour searching for food and have no time to devote to the centuries of leisurely experimentation required to domesticate plants.

Answer 45

suggested in 1911 that such desert-dwelling peoples “receive from the immense monotony of their environment the impression of unity.” She proposed that the unobstructed view of the stars and planets provided by the clear desert skies allowed the herders to see that the heavenly bodies moved across the sky in an orderly, repeated progression. Concluded that desert dwellers “gravitate inevitably into monotheism;” carried Ratzel’s ideas to the United States; claimed that geography was the study of the influences of the natural environment of people.

Answer 46

German scholar-farmer who developed the core-periphery model in the nineteenth century (economic determinism). In his model he proposed an “isolated state” that had no trade connections with the outside world; possessed only one market, located centrally in the state; and had uniform soil, climate, and level terrain throughout. He created this model to study the influence of distance from market and the concurrent transport costs on the type and intensity of agriculture.

Answer 47

German geographer who was a major theorists of industrial location. He devised a model of how to understand industrial locations in regard to several factors, including labor supply, markets, resource location, and transpiration.

Answer 48

Shape, Area, Distance, Direction The things distorted by map projections Mercator and Gall-Peters show true direction and distort everything else Robinson distorts everything, but only slightly