AP Human Geography Exam notes

CHAPTER 1
Early Mapmaking: -First surviving maps = Babylonians -Thales: applied principles of geometry to measuring land area -Anaximander: made a world map based on information from sailors -Hecateus: may have produced the first geography book -Aristotle: first to demonstrate that earth was spherical -Eratosthenes: first person recorded to use the word geography, accepted the earth was spherical and almost calculated the earths circumference accurately -Ptolemy: wrote an eight volume guide to geography -Phei Hsiu: father of Chinese cartography, produced an accurate map of china -al-Idrisi: prepared a world map and text -Ibn-Battutah: wrote rihlah(travels) -Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius: ttok info from other mapmakers and explorers to create even more accurate maps. -Varenius: Geographica Generalis

Scale: -refers to the relationship of a features size on a map to its actual size on earth - three ways: fraction, ratio, written statement -less space shown on a map the larger the scale, and vice versa

GIS and GPS: -GIS: geographic information system- capture, store, query, analyze, and display geographic data -the position of any object on eath can be recorded mathematically (geocoding) -GPS: global positioning system-determines accurately the precise position of something on earth - uses satellites to collect data

Remote Sensing: -the acquisition of data about earths surface from a satellite orbiting earth or from other long distance methods -applications are mostly environmental (weather tracking)

Place: -toponym: name given to a place on earth -site: physical character of a place (climate, water cources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, elevation) -situation: location of a place relative to other places -Mathematical location: -meridian- line drawn between north and south poles (connect them)----longitude -parallel- line drawn parallel to the equator-----latitude -telling time from longitude- travelling eastward from prime meridian= plus 1 hour per every 15 degrees, and vice versa for westward movement Regions: Formal- also called homogeneous or uniform region. An area in which everyone shares one or more distinctive characteristics Functional- also called a nodal region, an area focused around a node or a focal point Vernacular- also called a perceptual region, is a place that is believed to exist as part of a cultures identity Environmental determinism- how the physical environment CAUSED certain social development Possibilism- the physical environment may limit SOME human action but people have the ability to adjust to their environment

Globalization: a force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope. -the ability of a people interact is growing because of new technologies, technically the world is shrinking. Space-time compression: the reduction in time it takes for something to reach another place.

Diffusion: the process by which a characteristic spreads from one place to another over time -Hearth- place form which an innovation originates -Expansion diffusion- the spread of a feature through a snowballing process: three types: hierarchical (spread from a node), contagious(rapid, widespread diffusion throughout a population), and stimulus(spread of an underlying idea).