Notes
The five themes
- Location, place, human-environment interaction, movement and region organize geographic questions.
- Absolute location uses coordinates or an address; relative location describes position compared with other places.
The global grid
- Latitude (parallels) is measured north or south of the equator (0°). Longitude (meridians) is measured east or west of the prime meridian (0°).
- The globe has 360° of rotation per 24 hours, so 15° of longitude equals one hour of time.
Maps and projections
- Flat maps always distort shape, area, distance or direction. Mercator keeps direction but exaggerates areas near the poles; equal-area maps keep size; Robinson is a compromise.
- Scale links map distance to real distance. Large-scale maps show small areas in detail; small-scale maps show large areas.
- Map types: political, physical, thematic (choropleth, dot density, flow-line, cartogram) and topographic (contour lines).
Geographic technology
- GIS stacks data layers for analysis, GPS uses satellites to find positions, and remote sensing gathers data from a distance.
Topics in this unit
Each topic has its own short notes and practice.
Practice
Place describes the physical and human traits that make a location unique.
North latitude is in the Northern Hemisphere and east longitude is in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Mercator preserves direction, which is why it is used for navigation.
$6 \times 25 = 150$ miles.
Choropleth maps shade areas according to a data value.
A GIS organizes data in layers that can be combined.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
The city of Cairo, Egypt, is located at about 30° N, 31° E. A map of North Africa uses a scale of 1 inch equals 200 miles, and Cairo is 2.5 inches from the city of Tripoli on that map.
(a) Name the hemispheres in which Cairo lies and state whether 30° N is latitude or longitude.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Cairo is in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. 30° N is a line of latitude because it is measured north of the equator.
Check off the points you earned:
(b) Find the real distance between Cairo and Tripoli according to the map.
Show the answer and scoring guide
$2.5 \times 200 = 500$ miles.
Check off the points you earned:
(c) A student uses a Mercator map to claim that Greenland is as large as Africa. Explain why this claim is wrong.
Show the answer and scoring guide
The Mercator projection stretches areas near the poles, so high-latitude Greenland looks much larger than it is. Africa lies near the equator and is about 14 times larger than Greenland. An equal-area map would show true relative sizes.
Check off the points you earned: