Chapter 1

1. Chapter 1 • Basic Concepts

3. What is geography? • geography comes from two Greek words • geo means Earth • graphy means to write • geography is the study of where things are found on the Earth’s surface and the reasons for the location • Human geographers ask two questions:

4. Where are people and activities found on Earth? • Why are they found there? • Geography is divided into two categories • human geography- the study of where and why human activities are located where they are • physical geography- studies where and why natural forces occur as they do

5. the most important tool in geography is called a map- a two dimensional or flat scaled model of earth’s surface or a portion of it • a place is a specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic

6. a region is an area of Earth distinguished by a distinctive combination of cultural and physical features

7. the question “why” is very important to geographers • the concepts of scale, space, and connections help geographers explain why cultures on opposite sides of the planet can have the same religion or economic systems • scale is the relationship between the portion of the Earth being studied and the Earth as a whole

8. space refers to the physical gap or interval between two objects • connections are relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space

9. Key issue 1 • How do geographers describe where things are?

10. cartography is the art of map making • maps serve two general purposes: • reference tools- help us find the shortest route between two points • communications tool- a map is often the best tool in understanding the distribution of human activities or physical features

11. maps that show the same area over long periods of time can show us a lot about a civilization

12. the united states • 1779

13. the united states • 1786

24. 1820

25. 1850

26. 1860

27. 1880

28. 1920

29. 1960

31. chinese

33. Australia

34. the earliest surviving maps were made during the 6th or 7th century BC • in these maps, the world is a cylinder • they were produced by Thales and Anaximander • Hecateus produced the first geography book in 500 BC

35. Aristotle was the first person to demonstrate the world was sphere in a map • Eratosthenes was the first person on record to use the word geography • he also calculated the earth’s circumference within a .5% accuracy • he lived between 276 and 194 BC (estimate)

36. 2,000 years ago the Roman empire controlled most of Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia • they collected a lot of information from merchants and soldiers • because of this Ptolemy wrote an 8 volume Guide to Geography • the maps he made were used for a little over 1,000 years

37. after Ptolemy maps became more imaginative. They showed monsters and sea creatures more than mathematical spaces in the earth • The rest of the world continued to study and question about geography • in the 5th century BC the Chinese produced a fairly accurate representation of China’s economic resources • Phei Hsiu made a good map of China in AD 267

38. the Muslims • al-Idrisi prepared a world map and geography text in 1154 building on Ptolemy’s work • Ibn-Battutah traveled through northern Africa, southern Europe, and much of Asia to write a travel guide

39. Columbus and Magellan sailed across oceans in search of trade routes. • Geographers Mercator and Ortius took information collected by explorers to create more accurate maps. • by the 17th century maps accurately displayed the outline of most continents and positions of oceans • Bernhardus Varenius (1622-1650) produced Geographia Generalis • this was used for more than a century

40. to make a scale model of the world, he got rid of a lot of details • Map scale is presented in three ways • a ratio or fraction shows the numerical ratio between distances on the map and Earth’s surface • 1:24,000 means that 1 unit on the map represents 24,000 of the same unit on the ground

41. a written scale- describes the relationship between map and Earth distances in words • “One inch equals one mile: • graphic scale- a bar line marked to show distance on a map in inches or centimeters

42. Projection • globes are the best representation of the earth but they aren’t the most user friendly • the scientific method of transferring locations on Earth’s surface to a flat map is called projection • the shape of an area can be distorted • the distance between two objects can change • the relative size may be altered • the direction can be distorted

43. equal area projections are used most often • the relative sizes of the land masses on the map are the same as in reality

44. the Robinson projection is useful for displaying information across the oceans • it often causes the land areas to be too small • the Mercator projection • advantages • shape is distorted very little • direction is consistent • the map is rectangular

45. disadvantages • the area around the poles are distorted making the land appear larger Mercator Projection Robinson Projection

46. U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785 • this divided much of the country into a system of townships and ranges to facilitate the sale of land to settlers in the West • Thomas Hutchins did the original surveying in 1781 • after he died an official position called Surveyor General was created

47. a township is a square 6 miles on each side • principal meridians are the lines from north-south that separate townships • the east-west lines are called base lines • each township is divided into 36 sections, each is 1 mile by 1 mile • the township system is important for understanding the location of objects across the US

48. Contemporary tools • GIS is a program that helps geographers make maps

49. GPS is a system that determines precise positioning of the Earth • 24 satellites called Navastars are in space • many tracking stations exist across the globe

50. remote sensing- the collection of information about the surface of the Earth from a satellite