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UNIT 1The World

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CH. 1Using Geography Skills

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SECTION 1Thinking Like a Geographer

Geography

History

decade

century

millennium

Prehistory

Ancient History

Middle Ages

Modern History

Map information

Satellites

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Governments

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The Five Themes of Geography Geography

the study of the Earth and its people, and people who study geography are geographers

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Five Themes of Geography

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Absolute Location Relative Location

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The Five Themes of Geography*

1. Location the position of a place on the Earth’s surface

Absolute location the exact spot on Earth where a geographic

feature, such as a city or mountain, is found Relative location

describes where that feature is in relation to the features around it

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The Five Themes of Geography

2. Place describes the characteristics of a location that make it unique, or different

A place can be defined by physical features, such as landforms, plants, animals, and weather patterns.*

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The Five Themes of Geography

3. Human-environment interactiondescribes how people affect or change their environment, or natural surroundings, to meet their needs

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The Five Themes of Geography

4. Movement • explains how and why people, ideas, and

goods move from place to place5. Regions

• refers to areas of the Earth’s surface that have several common characteristics

Physical Geographers

Human geographers

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A Geographer’s Tools* Physical Geographers

Study natural resources that are available in an area and the ways people use those resources

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A Geographer’s Tools Physical Geographers

study an area’s natural resources, such as water, forests, land, and wind, and help people decide how to manage the resources

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A Geographer’s Tools Human geographers

look at people’s religions, languages, and ways of life*

Help plan cities and aid in international businesses

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A Geographer’s Tools History

helps geographers understand how places appeared in the past and changed over time

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A Geographer’s Tools History

divided into blocks of time known as periods A period of 10 years is called a decade. A period of 100 years is known as a century. A period of 1,000 years is a millennium.

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A Geographer’s Tools Western societies

Group history into four long periods1. Prehistory- time before people developed

writing (5,500 years ago)2. Ancient History- 1,500 years ago3. Middle Ages (medieval)-1,000 years ago4. Modern History- began 500 years ago and

continues to the present

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A Geographer’s Tools Map information

Collected using modern technology, or tools and methods that help people perform tasks

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A Geographer’s Tools Satellites

provide information for maps in the form of detailed digital images, photographs, and measurements of temperatures and the amount of pollution in the air or land

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A Geographer’s Tools Global Positioning System (GPS)

a system using radio signals to determine the exact location of every place on Earth

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are computer hardware and software that

gather, store, and analyze geographic information and then display it on a screen

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A Geographer’s Tools• Governments

• hire geographers for different kinds of tasks, such as helping decide how land and resources might be used and for analyzing population trends

• Geographers often work as researchers and analysts

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SECTION 2The Earth in Space

Solar System

Major Planets

Earth’s Movement

Orbits

revolution

leap year

axis

atmosphere

Solstices and Equinoxes

Solstices and EquinoxesCont…Winter solstice

equinoxes

Effects of Latitude

Effects of Latitude cont…

Midlatitudes

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The Solar System Earth, seven other major planets,

thousands of smaller bodies, and the sun form our solar system.

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Major Planets– The inner planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth,

and Mars—are relatively small and solid. – The outer planets—Jupiter, Saturn,

Uranus, and Neptune—are larger and composed mostly or entirely of gases.

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Major Planets• Pluto

• once considered a major planet• Now called a minor planet

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Major Planets Each planet

follows its own path, or orbit, around the sun.

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Major planet Orbits

Vary from circular to elliptical, or oval shaped Mercury

Needs 88 days to orbit the sun Neptune

Takes 165 years to orbit the sun

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Earth’s Movement Earth

Takes almost 365¼ days, or one year, to make one revolution, or a complete circuit, around the sun.

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Earth’s Movement axis

an imaginary line that passes through the center of Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole

Earth rotates in an easterly direction, making one

complete rotation every 24 hours.

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Earth’s Movement• atmosphere

• the layer of oxygen and gases that surrounds Earth, moves with it• We do not feel Earth moving as it rotates

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Sun and Seasons Earth

tilted 23½ degrees on its axis Causes seasons to change as Earth makes its

year-long orbit around the sun*

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Sun and Seasons

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Sun and Seasons Solstices and Equinoxes

On or about June 21 North Pole is tilted toward the sun

On noon of this day, the sun appears directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. Northern Hemisphere

this day is the summer solstice—the day with the most hours of sunlight and the beginning of summer

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Sun and Seasons• December 22

• the situation is reversed.* – At noon, the sun’s direct rays strike the Tropic of

CapricornWinter solstice begins

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Sun and Seasons*• These days are the equinoxes

• when day and night are of identical length in both hemispheres• On or about March 21, the spring equinox

occurs. • On or about September 23, the fall equinox

occurs.

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Sun and Seasons On both days, the noon sun shines

directly over the Equator.

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Sun and Seasons Effects of Latitude*

The sun’s rays directly hit places in the Tropics, the low-

latitude areas near the Equator between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

result temperatures in the Tropics tend to be very warm

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Sun and Seasons• High latitudes

• North and South Poles • The sun’s rays hit indirectly, so temperatures in

these regions are always cool or cold

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Sun and Seasons Midlatitudes

Weather, temperatures, and seasons The areas between the Tropics of Cancer and

Capricorn and the polar regions vary greatly. Reason

Air masses from both the high latitudes and the Tropics affect these areas