Chapter 1 Study Guide
Section 1: How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?
1. Where does the term geography come from and what does it mean?
2. What are the two focal questions of geography?
3. How are physical and human geography related, and what is the difference between them?
4. Why is physical geography a natural science, while human geography a social science?
5. What is a geographer’s most important tool?
6. What is a map, and explain what two main purposes a map serves.
7. What is cartography?
8. From what part of the world does the earliest form of map come from?
9. How did Ptolemy contribute to cartography?
10. What tool do cartographers use to decide how much of Earth’s surface they should depict?
11. What is a scale and what forms may it take?
12. What is a projection, why is it necessary, and what problems arise with projections?
13. What is the difference between equal-area projections and uninterrupted projections?
14. What two uninterrupted projections do you know, and what is the difference between them?
15. Explain the concepts of scale, projection, and distortions as they pertain to cartography.
16. What are two advantages of today’s contemporary mapping tools?
17. What contemporary geographic tool would you use for navigation, creating an image of Earth’s surface, or measuring
the position of an object on Earth?
18. What are layered or mash-up maps, what creates them, and what purpose do they serve?
Section 2: Why Is Each Point On Earth Unique?
1. Define place and location.
2. Describe each of the four ways by which a location may be identified and note their purpose.
3. Who makes the final decision on place names in the U.S.?
4. Identify each of the following terms: meridian, parallel, longitude, and latitude.
5. What are the two most important meridians and three most important parallels?
6. What famous place does 0 degree longitude cross? What is the name of 0 degree latitude?
7. Where does the International Date Line begin, and how is Earth divided into 24 time zones?
8. How many time zones are in the U.S., what are they, and why do we have them?
9. Explain how geographers describe the mathematical location of a place, and give a specific example of how they
would use the concepts of site and situation in relation to a particular place, such as Canoga Park.
10. What is a region?
11. What is a cultural landscape, and how can a physical landscape be turned into a cultural landscape?
12. Describe and provide examples of each of the three types of regions.
13. What is a mental map, what type of region does it belong to, and what is an example of a mental map?
14. Define the term spatial association and provide a couple of examples of it.
15. What is culture?
16. When human geographers investigate a cultural region, what types of questions do they ask, i.e. what characteristics
do they look at?
17. Define language, religion, and ethnicity.
18. What are MDCs and LDCs, and how do we distinguish them from one another? Provide examples.
19. What is cultural ecology?
20. What two theories exist(ed) to explain human-environment relationships?
21. What was the theory that Humboldt and Ritter came up with? What became of the theory?
22. What are resources and what is their relationship to the theory of environmental possibilism?
23. What are the four environmental processes that influence human activities?
24. What is the Koppen system?
25. Define: biomes, geomorphology, relief, and slope.
26. What is the ideal environment for humans?
27. Why are we concerned about the human modification of the environment?
Section 3: Why Are Different Places Similar?
1. Describe the concept of globalization (definition) and explain its impact on culture and the economy (driving forces;
positive and negative consequences).
2. What is space-time compression and what is its consequence?
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What is diffusion and what role networks play in diffusion?
Explain how space-time compression makes spatial interaction easier (removal of barriers, distance decay).
What is distance decay and how is it related to diffusion?
Explain how diffusion works (originates, spreads).
What three conditions are necessary for diffusion?
Describe the two types of diffusion.
Explain the three types of expansion diffusion.
What is the difference between hearths and peripheries when it comes to globalization.
What does difference between hearths and peripheries lead to in terms of development? Explain.
Explain the difference between chronological versus spatial thinking by using specific examples (history v. human geo.)
What is distribution and what are the three main properties of distribution across space (Earth)?
Explain the difference between density and concentration. Provide an example of each.
Define: arithmetic density, physiological density, agricultural density, clustered concentration, dispersed concentration.
Describe the term pattern as one of the main properties of distribution across Earth, and provide an example of it.
Explain how and why people might be distributed across space based on gender, ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual
orientation.