AP Human Geography Unit 1 Vocab

Changing attribute of place refers to the change in the way the landscape appears due to modernization or migration. An example is a desert filling up with people.

A built landscape is represented by those features and patterns reflecting human occupation and use of natural resources. Examples of built landscape are roads and bridges.

Sequent occupancy is the idea that successful societies leave their imprint on a place by contributing to its cultural landscape. For example, European architecture is found in former colonial cities.

Density is the frequency with which something occurs in space. An example of density can be measured by the amount of cars per square mile.

The total number of people divided by the total land area.For example, The Netherlands have a higher density of people than China.

The number of people per unit of area of arable land which is suitable for agriculture. An example of physiological density would be Egypt because much of the land is unsuitable for intensive agriculture.

Diffusion is the process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time. An example of diffusion is text messaging. To be more specific, text messaging is an example of contagious diffusion.

A hearth is a place from which an innovation originates. The hearth of Europe spread into The US and Canada.

Relocation diffusion is the spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another. An example of Relocation diffusion is when people migrate and take their culture, language, and religion with them.

Expansion diffusion is the spread of a feature from one place to another in additive process. An example of expansion diffusion is hierarchal diffusion and Contagious diffusion.

Hierarchical diffusion is the spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places. An example of Hierarchical diffusion is hip hop or rap music originated in urban areas and diffused to low income areas.

Contagious diffusion is the rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population. New medicines is an example of contagious diffusion because it gets spread though out the United states.

Stimulus diffusion is the spread of an underlying principal even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse. An example of a stimulus is when the features of an iPhone are adopted by competitors.

Concentration is the extent of a feature's spread over space. Two examples of concentration are scattered and clustered.

Dispersed concentration is when objects in an area are relatively far apart. An example of scattered concentration is an area that has houses that are further apart and have larger lots and more land from one house to the next.

Clustered concentration is when objects in an area are close together. An example of clustered concentration is when house are built very close together and the houses have smaller lots.

Direction is used to determine where things are in relation to other things. The most important directions in geography (also the absolute directions) are North, East, South and West.

A compass direction such as north or south are absolute directions. Saying that Canada is North of the US is an example of absolute direction.

Directions such as left, right, forward, backward, up, and down based on people's perception of places and are relative directions. An example would be saying that Canada is above the US is a relative direction.

Distance is the amount of space between two things, regions, or land masses. The distance from raleigh to Charlotte is 130 miles.

An absolute distance is the exact measurement of the physical space between two places. Using the amount of miles that separates two places is an example of absolute distance.

A relative distance is the approximate measurement of the physical space between two places. Saying that something is about 20 minutes away from another place is using the relative distance.

Distribution is the arrangement of something across the Earth's surface. For example, the distribution of houses in a neighborhood can be clustered or dispersed.

Environmental Determinism is a belief that the physical environment caused social development. For example, the more temperate climate is the lower death rate and higher health conditions.

Location is the position of anything on Earth's surface. Raleigh is located in North Carolina is an example of location.

The position of place of a certian item on the surface of the Earth as expresed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude, and longitude is known as absolute location. For example, the state capital building in Denver, Colorado is located at 39.42.2 north latitude and 104.59.04 west longitude.

The regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places. The relative location of Kansas City, Missouri is just East of Kansas City, Kansas.

Site is the physical character of a place. For example, the site of Shanghai is along the south bank of the Yangtze river.

Situation is the location of a place relative to other places.The example of a situation is: Shanghai is situated near the confluence of the Yangtze river and the East Chin Sea.

A place name is a name given to a place on Earth. An example of a place name is St. Louis and St. Paul which are cities named after people in history.

A Pattern is the geometric or regular arrangement of something in a study area. Territory in the west was settled in townships, typically 6 miles by 6 miles in patterns.

A linear pattern is a strait lines and an example is houses along a street.

A centralized pattern is clustered or concentrated at a specific point. Farm lands are surrounding the Nile for easy water access is an example of centralized.

A random pattern has no specific order or logic behind the arrangement. The distribution of baseball teams though out the country is an example of a random pattern.

Physical attributes are physical features of the landscape. An example would be the weather and climate of a region.

The physical landscape is known as the environment that has not been affected by humans. An example of natural landscapes is the Amazon Rainforest.

Possibilism is the physical environment may limit some human actions but people have the ability to adjust to their environment. An example is the climate of a location which influences human activities, especially food production.

An area of Earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristic is known as a region. An example of a region is The South.

A formal region is an area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics such as language or economic activity. Montana is an example of a formal region because they share the same economic activity and language.

A functional region is an area organized around a node or focal point. An example of a functional region would deb the circulation of newspaper.

A vernacular region is an area that people believe exists as a part of their cultural identity. An example of a vernacular region would be that the American south which has distinct environmental, cultural, and economic preferences.

Scale is the relationship between proportion of the Earth being studied and earth as a whole. An example of scale would be that the great lakes and south regions have higher levels of cancer than the west.

The physical dimensions, proportions, magnitude, or extent of an object. With size we are able to compare many things including the different sizes of two nations.

Spatial is the arrangement of objects, people, and activities across Earth and why they are distributed in that space. For example, how communities are arranged is an example of spatial.

Spatial interaction is when places are connected to each other through a network. With todays technology, we are able to connect to different places around the world to achieve spatial interaction.

A degree of ease with which it is possible to reach a location is known as accessibility. An example would be being able to drive to the OBX from Raleigh.

Connectivity is the ability to form relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space. An example is setting up factories over seas and being able to monitor them and communicate easier due to technology.

Network is a chain of communication that connects places. For example, in the modern world, communication networks are used to connect people without traveling at all.

Distance decay is when two people are far apart, their contact diminishes and eventually disappears. For example, if a family member moves out of the country, you would see them less often then your family that lives in the same state as you.

Friction of distance is the measure of restricting effect of distance on spatial interaction. The greater the distance, the greater the "friction" and the less the interaction or exchange, or the greater the cost of achieving the exchange.

Space time compression is a term that describes the reduction in time it takes for something to reach another place. An example of this is the improvement of transportation from sailing across the Atlantic in the 1400's to modern day airplanes.

Distortion is the errors made form changing the spherical Earth to a flat paper when drawing a map. ( Size, Shape, Distance and Direction) An example is how the Mercator projection because the size is distorted to the Poles.

GIS is a computer system that captures, stores, queries, analysis, and displays geographic data. An example of GIS is how we are able to make our maps by the layering technique using both vectors and rasters.

GPS uses satellites to accurately determine the precise position of something on Earth. An example of GPS is when yo

Grid is a pattern which intersects at right angles at uniform intervals to form squares or rectangles. An example is the land ordinance of 1785 is an example of a square grid pattern.

The North Pole is 90 degrees North latitude and the South Pole is 90 degrees South latitude

The numbering system to indicate the location of a parallel is called latitude. An example of latitude is the equator found at 0 degrees latitude.

A parallel is a circle that is drawn around the globe parallel to the equator. An example of a parallel would be the Tropics of Capricorn.

The equator is the parallel at 0 degrees latitude.

Longitude is the location of each Meridian is identified on Earths surface according to a numbering system. An example is that 0 degrees longitude is the Prime Meridian.

A meridian is an arch drawn between the North and South Poles.

Prime Meridian is the meridian that passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The Prime Meridian goes through 0 degrees longitude

The International Date Line follows 180 degrees longitude where you move the clock back 1 day if you are headed east towards America. The International Date Line passes through Kiribati.

A map is a two-dimensional or flat-scale model of Earth's surface or a portion of it. An example of a map is a Robinson map which shows mostly the world if it were flat.

The level of detail and amount of area covered on a map depends on its map scale. An example of map scale is 1:24,000 which means that one inch on the map equals 24,000 feet on Earth.

There are different map types used to show and communicate different things. For example when you use a Choropleth map, you are able to look at

A thematic map presents information on a specific topic. You could have a thematic map about many topics including climate, population, transportation, and even water use.

A Statistical map is a special type of map in which the variation in quantity of a factor such as rainfall, population, or crops in a geographic area is indicated.

A Cartogram is a map in which some thematic mapping variable is substituted for land area. An example of a cartogram is on page 46 there is a population cartogram showing people distributed across the Earth.

A Dot map uses dots to show the presence of a certain feature and it shows spatial patterns. Dot maps are mostly used when vectors provide the information for the GIS layering technique.

A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data is known as a choropleth map. An example of this map is the cancer map on page 19. By using color, this map shows how rates of cancer are higher in some areas than other areas.

An isoline is a map's line that connects points of equal or similar values. For example, equal altitudes are used to interoperate information on a thematic map.

A mental map is an internal representation of a portion of Earth's surface. For example, a senior in college is more likely to have a detailed map of campus than a freshman.

A model is a representation of the real thing. An example would be a globe of the world.

Projection is the scientific method of transferring location on Earth's surface to a flat map. An example is the Mercator Map and Robinson Map.

Remote sensing is the acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting Earth or other long distance methods. An example is Google maps because they are able to scan the Earths surface with a grid that can contain many rows of pixels.

A geographic region is where the same standard time is used is called a time zone. An example of a timezone is Eastern standard time.