Maps & Projections
This essential map element explains what the different symbols, colors, and patterns on a map represent.
What is a legend?
This line of longitude is located at 0° and runs from north to south on Earth.
What is the Prime Meridian?
This type of diffusion occurs when people physically move from one place to another and bring their ideas or culture with them.
What is relocation diffusion?
This technology uses satellite signals to determine your precise location on Earth and tells you exactly where you are.
What is GPS (Global Positioning System)?
This type of region is defined by areas that have uniform characteristics, like the Corn Belt where corn is the dominant crop.
What is a formal region?
All map projections contain some form of this because you cannot represent a 3D sphere on a 2D surface without some stretching, compressing, or tearing.
What is distortion?
These lines run horizontally on maps, are also called parallels, and measure north-south distance from the equator.
What are latitude lines?
A TikTok dance trend that spreads through young people until even their parents are doing it is an example of this type of diffusion that spreads through direct contact.
What is contagious diffusion?
The United States conducts this population count every ten years to collect demographic and geographic data.
What is the census?
When analyzing the Ebola virus on this scale, you would focus on tracking individual cases and containment efforts within a specific city.
What is local scale?
This type of map scale shows a small area with lots of detail, like a street map of downtown Austin showing individual buildings.
What is large scale?
The address "1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, D.C." is an example of this type of location that gives exact coordinates or addresses.
What is absolute location?
This is what happens when a physical location becomes meaningful through human experience and attachment, transforming it from mere coordinates into something significant
What is a place? (or What is the transformation from space to place?)
This type of thematic map uses different shades of color within defined areas like counties, where darker colors represent higher data values and lighter colors represent lower values.
What is a choropleth map?
When people refer to "The South" in the United States, they often have different ideas about which states are included based on their personal experiences, making this a type of region that exists in people's minds
What is a perceptual region?
This map projection is perfect for ship navigation because it shows accurate compass directions,
What is the Mercator projection?
This concept explains why people shop at a grocery store 2 miles away rather than one 10 miles away, even if the distant store has better prices.
What is time-distance decay?
When King Clovis I converted to Christianity and his subjects followed his lead, this demonstrated diffusion spreading from people of authority to others.
What is hierarchical diffusion?
While GPS tells you where you are, this technology is used for mapping, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data to help understand geographic patterns.
What is GIS (Geographic Information Systems)?
Las Vegas being built in a desert demonstrates this concept, which states that the environment provides possibilities but humans choose how to respond, showing human ingenuity.
What is possibilism?
This projection is considered the "gold standard" because it balances all types of distortion and looks good for general reference use, making you think "Wouldn't you rather" use this one.
What is the Robinson projection?
According to your textbook's definition, this type of distance measures the level of social, cultural, or economic similarity between places despite their physical distance from each other.
What is relative distance?
This process occurs when advances in transportation and communication technologies make the world feel smaller and more interconnected by reducing perceived distance between places.
What is time-space compression?
This type of thematic map distorts the actual size of geographic areas to represent data values, making some countries appear much larger or smaller than they really are.
What is a cartogram?
The area served by a major metropolitan newspaper, where most readers live within a certain distance of the city, is organized around a focal point and represents this type of region.
What is a functional region?