Unit 1 Vocab Flashcards
Mercator Map Projection
Simple & reliable. Misleading. Size comparison is not right when zoomed out, becomes less accurate,
Peters Map Projection
Size comparison is accurate but countries are distorted.
Robinson Map Projection
Most accurate
Distance - Decay
The name of the theory that states that as the distance between two places increases, the interaction between those two places decreases.
Friction of Distance
The idea that movement over space requires effort, resulting in an undesirable loss of resources, typically called a cost or impedance, that is directly proportional to the distance between a source and destination.
Intervening Opportunity
A feature (usually economic) that causes a migrant to choose a destination other than his original one.
Ethnocentric
The feeling that one’s own ethnic group is superior
Field Work
The study of geographic phenomena by visiting and observing how people interact with and thereby change those places.
Globalization
The increasing connection of economic, cultural, and political characteristics across the world.
Scale
The relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole, specifically the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth’s surface.
Spatial Perspective
A way of thinking about how and why physical features or processes are positioned in geographic space.
Epidemiology
A field of study that looks at patterns of health and disease within a population.
Pandemic
Epidemics that are spread over a wide geographic area.
Epidemic
Disease outbreaks that infect a large share of individuals in a community.
Absolute Location
The exact location; longitude & latitude
Relative Location
The position of a place or entity based on its location with respect to other locations.
Human Environment Interaction
The effect that humans have on their environment and the effect that the environment has on humans.
Region
Any area differentiated from surrounding areas by at least one characteristic.
Sense of Place
The emotions someone attaches to an area based on their experiences.
Perceptions of Places
Belief or “understanding” about a place developed through books, movies, stories or pictures.
Accessibility/connectivity
Connectivity - The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.
Accessibility - The degree of ease with which it is possible to reach certain location from other locations.
Cultural Landscape
A historically significant property that shows evidence of human interaction with the physical environment.
Sequent Occupance
The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.
Reference Maps
Maps that show where something is in space; general overview of location
Thematic Maps
Maps that tell a story about a place.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
A network of satellites and receiving devices used to determine the location of something on Earth
Activity Space
A geographic extent in which people move in the course of their daily activities.
Mental Maps
A personal visualization of spatial information, or a map of information in the human.
GIS
A computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface.
Remote Sensing
The process of taking pictures of the Earth’s surface from satellites (or, earlier, airplanes) to provide a greater understanding of the Earth’s geography over large distances.
Formal Region
An area within which everyone shares distinctive characteristics.
Functional Region
An area organized around a central focal point or node.
Perceptual Region
An area that people believe exist as part of their cultural identity.
Culture Trait
The specific customs that are part of the everyday life of a particular culture, such as language, religion, ethnicity, social institutions, and aspects of popular culture.
Cultural Hearth
A place of origin for a widespread cultural trend.
Diffusion
The spread of an idea or characteristic over time.
Expansion Diffusion
When innovations spread to new places while staying strong in their original locations.
Hierarchical Diffusion
When an idea spreads by passing first among the most connected individuals, then spreading to other individuals.
Contagious Diffusion
A kind of cultural diffusion that relies on direct person-to-person contact for the spread of ideas, information, and knowledge.
Stimulus Diffusion
Diffusion in which one people receives a culture element from another but gives it a new and unique form.
Relocation Diffusion
The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.
Transculturation
The merging of different cultural elements
Acculturation
The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.
Environmental Determinism
The belief that the environment, most notably its physical factors such as landforms and climate, determines the patterns of human culture and societal development.
Cultural Ecology
The relationship between culture and the environment, dealing with human adaptations to various environments.
Political Ecology
The study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes.
Possibilism
The concept that the natural environment places constraints on human activity, but humans can adapt to some environmental limits while modifying others using technology.
Choropleth
Show numbers with colors in a human made areal units (COUNTRY COUNTRY)
Isopleth
Show numbers with colors with isolines over (Topographic)
Cartogram
Shows numbers by distorting space (statistical) (WONKINESS)
Dot map
Shows numbers with dots
Graduated Circle Map
Shows numbers with circles
Equator
A line that runs through the middle of the Earth horizontally.
Prime Meridian
The line of 0° longitude, the starting point for measuring distance both east and west around Earth.
International Date Line
On the opposite side of the planet to prime meridian.
Tropic of Cancer/Capricorn
Tropic of Cancer - The most northern latitude on the Earth where the sun can appear directly overhead.
Tropic of Capricorn - The most southern latitude on the Earth where the sun can appear directly overhead.
