Unit 1

1. Unit 1 The World

2. Ch. 1 Using Geography Skills

3. Section 1 Thinking Like a Geographer

7. The Five Themes of Geography • Geography • the study of the Earth and its people, and people who study geography are geographers

8. Five Themes of Geography

10. The Five Themes of Geography* • Location • the position of a place on the Earth’s surface • Absolute location • the exact spot on Earth where a geographic feature, such as a city or mountain, is found • Relative location • describes where that feature is in relation to the features around it

11. The Five Themes of Geography • Place • describes the characteristics of a location that make it unique, or different • A place can be defined by physical features, such as landforms, plants, animals, and weather patterns.*

12. The Five Themes of Geography • Human-environment interaction • describes how people affect or change their environment, or natural surroundings, to meet their needs

13. The Five Themes of Geography • Movement • explains how and why people, ideas, and goods move from place to place • Regions • refers to areas of the Earth’s surface that have several common characteristics

14. Physical Geographers Human geographers

15. A Geographer’s Tools* • Physical Geographers • Study natural resources that are available in an area and the ways people use those resources

16. A Geographer’s Tools • Physical Geographers • study an area’s natural resources, such as water, forests, land, and wind, and help people decide how to manage the resources

17. A Geographer’s Tools • Human geographers • look at people’s religions, languages, and ways of life* • Help plan cities and aid in international businesses

18. A Geographer’s Tools • History • helps geographers understand how places appeared in the past and changed over time

19. A Geographer’s Tools • History • divided into blocks of time known as periods • A period of 10 years is called a decade. • A period of 100 years is known as a century. • A period of 1,000 years is a millennium.

20. A Geographer’s Tools • Western societies • Group history into four long periods • Prehistory- time before people developed writing (5,500 years ago) • Ancient History- 1,500 years ago • Middle Ages (medieval)-1,000 years ago • Modern History- began 500 years ago and continues to the present

21. A Geographer’s Tools • Map information • Collected using modern technology, or tools and methods that help people perform tasks

22. A Geographer’s Tools • Satellites • provide information for maps in the form of detailed digital images, photographs, and measurements of temperatures and the amount of pollution in the air or land

23. A Geographer’s Tools • Global Positioning System (GPS) • a system using radio signals to determine the exact location of every place on Earth • Geographic Information Systems (GIS) • are computer hardware and software that gather, store, and analyze geographic information and then display it on a screen

24. A Geographer’s Tools • Governments • hire geographers for different kinds of tasks, such as helping decide how land and resources might be used and for analyzing population trends • Geographers often work as researchers and analysts

25. Section 2 The Earth in Space

29. The Solar System • Earth, seven other major planets, thousands of smaller bodies, and the sun form our solar system.

30. Major Planets • The inner planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are relatively small and solid. • The outer planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are larger and composed mostly or entirely of gases.

31. Major Planets • Pluto • once considered a major planet • Now called a minor planet

32. Major Planets • Each planet follows its own path, or orbit, around the sun.

33. Major planet • Orbits • Vary from circular to elliptical, or oval shaped • Mercury • Needs 88 days to orbit the sun • Neptune • Takes 165 years to orbit the sun

34. Earth’s Movement • Earth • Takes almost 365¼ days, or one year, to make one revolution,or a complete circuit, around the sun.

35. Earth’s Movement • axis • an imaginary line that passes through the center of Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole • Earth • rotates in an easterly direction, making one complete rotation every 24 hours.

36. Earth’s Movement • atmosphere • the layer of oxygen and gases that surrounds Earth, moves with it • We do not feel Earth moving as it rotates

37. Sun and Seasons • Earth • tilted 23½ degrees on its axis • Causes seasons to change as Earth makes its year-long orbit around the sun*

38. Sun and Seasons

39. Sun and Seasons • Solstices and Equinoxes • On or about June 21 • North Pole is tilted toward the sun • On noon of this day, the sun appears directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. • Northern Hemisphere • this day is the summer solstice—the day with the most hours of sunlight and the beginning of summer

40. Sun and Seasons • December 22 • the situation is reversed.* • At noon, the sun’s direct rays strike the Tropic of Capricorn • Winter solstice begins

41. Sun and Seasons* • These days are the equinoxes • when day and night are of identical length in both hemispheres • On or about March 21, the spring equinox occurs. • On or about September 23, the fall equinox occurs.

42. Sun and Seasons • On both days, the noon sun shines directly over the Equator.

43. Sun and Seasons • Effects of Latitude* • The sun’s rays • directly hit places in the Tropics, the low-latitude areas near the Equator between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. • result • temperatures in the Tropics tend to be very warm

44. Sun and Seasons • High latitudes • North and South Poles • The sun’s rays hit indirectly, so temperatures in these regions are always cool or cold

45. Sun and Seasons • Midlatitudes • Weather, temperatures, and seasons • The areas between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and the polar regions vary greatly. • Reason • Air masses from both the high latitudes and the Tropics affect these areas