Transcript File - AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

I. Spatial Interaction & Distribution
A. Location, Direction, & Distance
1. absolute & relative location:
absolute location: a physical place measured by latitude
and longitude (the address of a house is also an absolute
location)
relative location: location in relation to other places
Real-time GPS Tracking systems
site & situation:
1.site: the physical and human characteristics of an
absolute location.
2. situation: the relationship of a place to other places.
Singapore
lower Manhattan Island
3. absolute and relative directions:
absolute direction: north, south, east, west
relative direction: “the middle east,” “west coast,”
“deep south”
4. absolute and relative distance:
absolute distance: cm, km, miles
relative distance: measured by time
B. Size & Scale
What is map scale?
--a consistent relationship between size on the map & size
in real life
1:24,000 scale
(one inch = about 0.4 miles)
1:100,000 scale
(one inch = about 1.5 miles)
Does a large-scale or small-scale map show a larger area of land?
small-scale= big area, little detail. Maps of the world which fit on two 8 1/2 by 11
inch pages are very small scale, about 1 to 100 million.
large-scale=small area, lot of detail. Large scale maps will have
a RF of 1:50,000 or greater (i.e. 1:10,000).
National Level... Deaths from Cancer
Lowest Level
State Level... Deaths from Cancer
Highest Level
Local Level...
Deaths from
Cancer
C. Interrelationships Between Places
The ideas of relative location & relative distance leads to
a fundamental spatial reality:
A. Places interact with other places in structured &
understandable ways through the following:
a.
b.
c.
i.
ii.
Accessibility: ability to interact with a particular location
Connectivity: interactions between several locations
Spatial Distribution:
density (measure of the number of something in a defined area)
dispersion (amount of something is spread out in space; types:
linear, clustered, or scattered dispersion)
iii. pattern (the geometric arrangement of objects in space)
Pattern of a
distribution to
uncover sources
of disease?
Map of Cholera
Victims in London’s
Soho District (1854)
Describing Distributions
Spatial behavior of people: population
The Spatial Distribution of Afghan Civilian Casualties
Caused by the U.S. Air War, October 7 - December 6th 2001
B. Regions
region: earth areas that display
some sort of uniformity
3 types of regions:
1. formal regions: an area which
has one or more common
distinctive characteristics, such
as language or economic activity
– i.e.: Florida state boundary;
US-Mexico border
2.
functional regions: an area defined
by its function (interactions &
connections)
–
i.e.: a downtown area
Formal & Functional Regions
The state of Iowa…formal region
Areas of influence of various television stations?
3.
perceptual (or vernacular) regions: emerges from people's
“sense of a place” (all about feelings & images of a place)
–
i.e.: The South, “the hood,” Chinatown
FORMAL, FUNCTIONAL, OR PERCEPTUAL?
Distribution of predominant world religions:
FORMAL, FUNCTIONAL, OR PERCEPTUAL?
Kurdistan
FORMAL, FUNCTIONAL, OR PERCEPTUAL?
World Countries (2005)