Unit 1 - Vocabulary

Question 1

Absolute Location

Answer 1

The location of a place based on a fixed point Earth (mathematical)

Question 2

Cartography

Answer 2

Science of mapmaking

Question 3

Contagious Diffusion

Answer 3

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population

Question 4

Cultural Ecology

Answer 4

Geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships

Question 5

Culture

Answer 5

The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group’s distinctive tradition

Question 6

Deforestation

Answer 6

The clearing of trees; transforming a forest into cleared land

Question 7

Density

Answer 7

The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area

Question 8

Diffusion

Answer 8

The spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

Question 9

Distance-Decay

Answer 9

The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin

Question 10

Distribution

Answer 10

The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface

Question 11

Enclave

Answer 11

A piece of land that is surrounded by foreign territory

Question 12

Environmental Determinism

Answer 12

A 19th and early 20th century approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study of how physical environment caused human activities

Question 13

Equator

Answer 13

The imaginary great circle around the Earth’s surface that divides the Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It is equidistant from the poles and perpendicular to the Earth’s axis of rotation

Question 14

Eratosthenes

Answer 14

The first person of record to use the word “geography” and he prepared one of the earliest maps of the known world

Question 15

Expansion Diffusion

Answer 15

The spread of a feature of trend among people from one area to another in an additive process

Question 16

Favelas

Answer 16

A Brazilian shack or shanty town; a slum

Question 17

Friction of Distance

Answer 17

The notion that distance usually requires some amount of effort (energy) and/or money to overcome

Question 18

Functional Region (nodal)

Answer 18

An area organized around a node or focal point

Question 19

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Answer 19

A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data

Question 20

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Answer 20

A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers

Question 21

Hierarchical Diffusion

Answer 21

The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to the other persons or places

Question 22

Hearth

Answer 22

The region from which innovative ideas originate

Question 23

International Date Line

Answer 23

An arc that for the most part follows 180 degrees longitude, although it deviates several places to avoid dividing land areas. When you cross the International Date Line heading east (towards America), the clock moves back 24 hours, or one entire day. When you go west (towards Asia), the calendar moves ahead one day

Question 24

Latitude

Answer 24

The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator (0 degrees)

Question 25

Longitude

Answer 25

The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian (0 degrees)

Question 26

Megacities

Answer 26

A very large city, typically one with over 10 million people

Question 27

Mercator Projection

Answer 27

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 a certain climatological maps

Question 28

Model

Answer 28

A representation of something at a smaller scale than the original

Question 29

Possibilism

Answer 29

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 from many alternatives

Question 30

Prime Meridian

Answer 30

The meridian, designated as 0 degrees longitude, that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England

Question 31

Projection

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Ptolemy

Answer 32

Produced maps based on information collected by merchants and soldiers who traveled through the Roman Empire

Question 33

Region

Answer 33

An area distingued by a unique combination of trends or features

Question 34

Relative Location

Answer 34

The regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places

Question 35

Relocation Diffusion

Answer 35

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movements of people from one place to another

Question 36

Remote Sensing

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Robinson Projection

Answer 37

A compromise map projection showing the poles as lines rather than points and more accurately portraying high latitude lands and water to land ratio

Question 38

Scale

Answer 38

Generally, the relationship between portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole

Question 39

Sequent Occupancy

Answer 39

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape

Question 40

Shifting Cultivation (slash and burn)

Answer 40

a form of agriculture, used especially in tropical Africa, in which an area of ground is cleared of vegetation and cultivated for a few years and then abandoned for a new area until its fertility has been naturally restored.

Question 41

Site

Answer 41

The physical and cultural characteristics of a place

Question 42

Situation

Answer 42

The location of a place relative to another place

Question 43

Space-Time Compression

Answer 43

The reduction in time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems

Question 44

Spatial Analysis

Answer 44

A set of techniques for analyzing spatial data; the process of examining the locations, attributes and relationships of features in spatial data through overlay and other analytical techniques in order to address a question or gain knowledge

Question 45

Squatter Settlements

Answer 45

An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures

Question 46

Stimulus Diffusion

Answer 46

The spread of an underlying principle even though a specific characteristic is rejected

Question 47

Time Zones

Answer 47

One of the 24 regions or division of the globe approximately coinciding with meridians at successive hours from the observatory at Greenwich, England; every 15 degrees

Question 48

Tobler’s First Law

Answer 48

“Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”

Question 49

Toponym

Answer 49

The name given to portion of Earth’s surface

Question 50

Uneven Development

Answer 50

The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy

Question 51

Vernacular Region (perpetual)

Answer 51

An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity

Question 52

Spatial Perspective

Answer 52

Observing variations in geographic phenomena across space