Aphg Chapter 1: Basic Concepts

Front 1

agricultural density

Back 1

the ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of land suitable for agriculture

Front 2

arithmetic density

Back 2

the total number of people divided by the total land area

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base line

Back 3

an east-west line designated under the Land Ordinance of 1785 to facilitate the surveying and numbering of townships in the US

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cartography

Back 4

the science of making maps

Front 5

concentration

Back 5

the spread of something over a given area

Front 6

connctions

Back 6

relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space

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contagious difusion

Back 7

the rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population

Front 8

cultural ecology

Back 8

geographic approach that emphasized human-environment relationships

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cultural landscape

Back 9

fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group

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culture

Back 10

the body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group's distinct tradition

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density

Back 11

the frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area

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diffusion

Back 12

the process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

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distance decay

Back 13

the diminishing importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin

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distribution

Back 14

the arrangement of something across Earth's surgace

Front 15

environmental determinism

Back 15

a nineteenth- and early twentieth-century approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences; geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human activities

Front 16

expansion diffusion

Back 16

the spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process

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formal region (uniform or homogeneous region)

Back 17

an area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics

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functional region (nodal region)

Back 18

an area organized around a node or focal point

Front 19

geographic information system (GIS)

Back 19

a computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data

Front 20

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Back 20

a system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers

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globalization

Back 21

actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope

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Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Back 22

the time in that zone encompassing the prime meridian, or 0° longitude

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hearth

Back 23

the region from which innovative ideas originate

Front 24

hierarchical diffusion

Back 24

the spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places

Front 25

International Date Line

Back 25

an arc that for the most part follows 180° longitude, although it deviates in several places to avoid dividing land areas; when you cross the International Date Line heading east (toward America), the clock moves back 24 hours, or one entire day; when you go west (toward America), the calendar moves ahead one day

Front 26

Land Ordinance of 1785

Back 26

a law that divided much of the US into townships to facilitate the sale of land to settlers

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latitude

Back 27

the numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator (0°)

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location

Back 28

the position of anything on Earth's surface

Front 29

longitude

Back 29

the numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a glove and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian (0°)

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map

Back 30

a two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth's surface or a portion of it

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mental map

Back 31

a representation of a portion of Earth's surface based on what an individual knows about a place, containing personal impressions of what is in a place and where places are located

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meridian

Back 32

an arc drawn on a map between the North and South poles

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parallel

Back 33

a circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians

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pattern

Back 34

the geometric or regular arrangement of something in a study area

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physiological density

Back 35

the number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture

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place

Back 36

a specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular character

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polder

Back 37

land created by the Dutch by draining water from an area

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possibilism

Back 38

the theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives

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prime meridian

Back 39

the meridian, designated as 0° longitude, that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England

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principal meridian

Back 40

a north-south line designated in the Land Ordinance of 1785 to facilitate the surveying and numbering of townships in the US

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projection

Back 41

the system used to transfer locations from the Earth's surface to a flat map

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region

Back 42

an area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features

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regional (or cultural landscape) studies

Back 43

an approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area

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relocation diffusion

Back 44

the spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another

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remote sensing

Back 45

the acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods

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resource

Back 46

a substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use

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scale

Back 47

generally, the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole; specifically, the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface

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section

Back 48

a square normally 1 mile on a side; the Land Ordinance of 1785 divided townships in the US into 36 sections

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site

Back 49

the physical character of a place

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situation

Back 50

the location of a place relative to another place

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space

Back 51

the physical gap or interval between two objects

Front 52

space-time compression

Back 52

the reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems

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stimulus diffusion

Back 53

the spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected

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toponym

Back 54

the name given to a portion of Earth's surface

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township

Back 55

a square normally 6 miles on a side; the Land Ordinance of 1785 divided much of the US into a series of townships

Front 56

transnational corporation

Back 56

a company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located

Front 57

uneven development

Back 57

the increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy

Front 58

vernacular region (or perceptual region)

Back 58

an area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity