Transcript Chapter 1 The World of Geography

Section 1
The Five Themes of Geography
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Geography is the study of the Earth’s surface,
the connection between places, and the
relationships between people and their
environment.
Geographers look at distances between
places, but also oceans, plant life, landforms,
and people.
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Good Geographers always ask two questions:
◦ Where are things located?
◦ Why are they there?
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To get answers, they use the five themes of
Geography. The themes help the geographers
to organize information.
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Location
◦ Geograpers being to study a place by finding where it is,
or its location.
◦ There are two types of location.
 Absolute location: exact location on Earth (EX. 39.95°N
75.17°W - Philadelphia)
 Determined by position of longitude and latitude lines and
measured in degrees.
 Longitude Lines: (AKA meridians) series of imaginary lines
that run north and south through both North and South Poles
 Latitude Lines: (AKA parallels) series of imaginary lines that
circle the Earth and are parallel to the Equator
 Degrees: a unit of measure used to determine absolute
location
◦ Prime Meridian: the longitude line at 0 degrees,
runs through Greenwich, England.
◦ Equator: the latitude line that circles the globe at its
widest point. Measured at 0 degrees.
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Location (Cont.)
 Relative Location: location by describing what is near
 EX. I live in Newtown Square. It is 13 miles west of
Philadelphia.
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Place
◦ Studying the physical and human features
 Physical features include climate (hot, cold) and land
(hilly).
 Human features include information like how many
people live there, and what kind of work do they do
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Human-Environment Interaction
◦ Studies three things
 How people affect their environment.
 EX. People take out parts of the land to build roads and
highways.
 Physical characteristics of their surroundings
 EX. Turkey receives little rainfall
 How their environment affects them
 EX. People must build irrigation systems in order to grow
food in Turkey
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Movement
◦ Movement is important because it helps explain how
people, goods, and ideas get from one place to another.
 Ex. Immigrants bring their traditional food to a new way of
life.
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Regions
◦ Geographers use regions to make comparisons
between areas.
◦ Regions have a unifying characteristic such as
climate, land, population, or history.
 Example: The Mid-Atlantic Region
◦ Plain: a flat piece of land
Section 2
The Geographer’s Tools
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Globes
◦ Early maps only showed where people lived and
traveled. They often left off information.
◦ As people explored the Earth, maps became more
accurate.
◦ The best way to show a map is a globe.
 Globe: a round model of the Earth
 Map makers can show the shape of an area according
to scale on a globe.
 Scale: the size or proportion of something on a map as
compared to its actual size.
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Maps
◦ Maps were invented because of two problems with
globes.
 Tough to transport
 Can’t make one big enough to show great detail of a
small place.
◦ Flat Maps solve those problems, but create their
own.
 Distortion: in maps, a misrepresentation of the original
shape and size.
 An area may look bigger or smaller
 Example on Next Slide
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In order to deal with distortion, we have to
look at projections.
Projection: a representation of the Earth’s
rounded surface on a flat piece of paper.
3 of the Best Know Projections
◦ Mercator Projection
 Correct shapes, but incorrect distances and sizes
◦ Peters Projection
 Correct sizes, incorrect shapes
◦ Robinson Projection
 Most shapes and sizes correct, most distance accurate
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Compass Rose: a map feature that usually shows the
four cardinal directions
Cardinal Direction: one of the four compass points:
north, south, east, and west
Intermediate Direction: one of the four secondary
compass points: northeast, northwest, southeast,
southwest
Scale: the size or proportion of something on a map
as compared to its actual size.
Key: the section of a map that explains the map
symbols
Title: The name (usually at the top) of a map that
identifies what the map is picturing.
Grid: Lines drawn on a map to help identify specific
places on a map