IFAT #1

Question 1

What is human geography?

Answer 1

examining or explaining the spatial distribution of human features and activities, and impacts on the environment

Question 2

What is Charles Grizner’s definition of human geography?

Answer 2

What is where, why there, why care?

description, explanation, impacts

Question 3

What is a mental map?

Answer 3

cognitive images representing a person’s perceptions, feelings, memories, meanings, and knowledge of a location

Question 4

What are some basic elements of mental maps?

Answer 4

paths, landmarks, nodes, districts, labels, text, drawings

Question 5

What are sketch maps?

Answer 5

represents a person’s mental map

simplified, distorted, incomplete

Question 6

What are the weaknesses of sketch maps?

Answer 6

• too focused on nodes, routes, landmarks

poorly captures:

• meanings and experiences
• interconnections of information
• underlying creation process

Question 7

What is space?

Answer 7

areal extent, usually the Earth’s surface

Question 8

What is a location?

Answer 8

a particular position within space

Question 9

What is a place?

Answer 9

a location with a particular meaning or identity

Question 10

What is a region?

Answer 10

a larger area encompassing many places

Question 11

What is distance?

Answer 11

space between 2 things

Question 12

What is Tobin’s Law?

Answer 12

everything is related to everything else. but close things are more related than distant things

Question 13

Describe the Distance-Decay Curve.

Answer 13

number of interactions decrease as distance increases

Question 14

What is the difference between latitude and longitude?

Answer 14

latitude - N or S of Equator

longitude - E or W of Prime Meridian

Question 15

What is friction?

Answer 15

difficulty of task, causes increased need for effort/resources to overcome distance

Question 16

What is GPS?

Answer 16

global positioning system, uses receivers in phones and satellites orbiting the Earth

Question 17

What is GIS?

Answer 17

modern day maps, powerful analysis techniques, layers of information

Question 18

What is the difference between Raster data and Vector data?

Answer 18

raster - grid

vector - points + lines = polygons

Question 19

What is culture?

Answer 19

• particular way of life
• shared set of values (mentifacts)
• shared social norms (sociofacts)
• material and symbolic practices of everyday life (artifacts)
• characteristic activities

Question 20

What is the acronym for the components of culture?

Answer 20

Penguins (particular)
Should (shared values)
Share (shared social norms)
Metal (material)
Crayons (characteristic)

Question 21

What is cultural geography?

Answer 21

how place/space/environment shapes culture, and vice versa

Question 22

What is cultural landscape?

Answer 22

fashioned from a natural landscape by a cultural group and their activities

Question 23

What leads to cultural landscape?

Answer 23

Natural Processes (climate) = Natural Environment (land)
Natural Environment (land) + Cultural Processes (activities) = Cultural Landscape (buildings)

Question 24

What are semiotics?

Answer 24

signs displayed in space that give off messages about identity, values, beliefs, and practices

Question 25

What is religion?

Answer 25

relatively structured set of beliefs and practices through which people seek mental and physical harmony with the powers of the universe