APHuG Vocabulary: Chapter 1- Basic Concepts

Directions: In the spaces provided, write a definition in your own words and identify a real-world (or reasonable potential real) example for
each term. Attach additional pages, as needed, to this packet when you turn it in on the due date.
Term

Text
Page
#

1. Geography

2. Map

3. Model

--

4. Region

5. Scale

6. Cartography

7. Projection

11

8. Distortion

--

9. Global
Information
Systems (GIS)

13

Paraphrased Definition

Real-world example

A simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify casual

relationships; used by geographers to explain patterns, make informed
decisions, and/or predict future behaviors

The Von Thunen model attempts to recreate a farmers choice

for the location of where he will cultivate a specific crop or
raise a specific crop or raise a specific type of animal in relation
to the market based upon cost of each land & transportation

Misrepresentation of the area, size, and/or shape of a place on earth

(typically land masses) resulting in the attempt to represent the round
world/globe on a flat map

On a Mercator Projection Greenland is distorted to the point of

appearing larger in size than the whole continent of Africa.

10. Remote Sensing

13

11. Global
Positioning
System(GPS)

14

12. Location

15

13. Toponym

15

14. Site

16

15. Situation

16

16. Meridian

18

17. Parallel

18

18. Longitude

18

19. Prime Meridian

18

20. Latitude

18

21. Greenwich Mean

Time (GMT)

19

22. Absolute
Location

---

Use of a coordinate system to have precise plotting for a location on

Earths surface; can include the idea of formalized addresses

23. Relative Location

--

Description of a places location based upon its locational relationship to

other human and/or physical features.

24. International
Date Line

20

25. Cultural
Landscapes

20

26. Regional Studies

(aka cultural
landscape
approach)
27. Sequent
Occupance

20

28. Formal Region

20

29. Functional
Region (nodal)

22

30. Vernacular
Region
(perceptual)

22

31. Mental map

22

32. Culture

24

--

Idea proposed in 1929 by Derwent Whittlesey referring to sequential

imprints of cultural occupants whose impacts are layered one on top
of the other, each layer has some impact on the next.

Using the coordinate system based on latitude and

longitude one can determine that absolute location
of Trinity Catholic High School is N290842 W
820954
The Dunkin Donuts in front of Skate Mania, near
Forest High School.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania experienced 4 different cultural

groups moving in and imprinting their culture upon city
layout in less than one century: Arabs in 1866, Germans in
1866, British in 1945, & Indians in 1950s.

33. Environmental
determinism

25

34. Possibilism

26

35. Globalization

31

36. Transnational
corporation

31

37. Distribution

34

38. Density

34

39. Arithmetic
density

34

40. Physiological
density

34

41. Agricultural
density

34

42. Concentration

34

43. Pattern

35

44. Space-time
compression

36

45. Core Countries

(aka developed)

---

46. Periphery
Countries (aka
developing)

---

47. Diffusion

38

48. Hearth

38

49. Relocation
diffusion

38

50. Expansion
diffusion

38

51. Hierarchical
diffusion

39

52. Contagious
Diffusion

40

53. Stimulus
Diffusion

40

54. Uneven
development

40

Wealthiest and most developed countries, sites where we can find

higher levels of education, higher salaries, and more technology which
collectively enhance pace of wealth accumulation (tend to be far
northern hemisphere)
Poorest and less/least developed countries, sites where we can find
lower levels of education, lower salaries, and less technology which
collectively limited pace of wealth accumulation (tend to be southern
hemisphere)

Core countries include thos in Anglo-America, Western and

Northern Europe, Australia, South Korea, and Japan; disputes
arise regarding Chinas placement as core (wealthier coast,
poorer western inlands)
Periphery countries would include sub-saharan Africa, Central
Asia, Middle East, parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia