1. Unit 1 Notes!!!!!!!!!

2. Science!!!!
Diffusion is the process that moves particles from areas of high concentration, spreading them to areas of low concentration.

3. Diffusion
Definition – the process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time.
Easier definition – how ideas or objects spread
2 Kinds of Diffusion
Relocation Diffusion
Expansion Diffusion

4. Relocation Diffusion
The spread of an idea or objects through a fairly permanent physical movement
Still happens today, but much less important.
Example – colonizing Australia

5. Expansion Diffusion
The spreading of ideas/objects through non- permanent physical contact.
3 Types
Hierarchichal diffusion
Contagious diffusion
Stimulus Diffusion

6. Expansion Diffusion Hierarchichal diffusion
The spread of an idea from important/powerful people to less important people from big, important places to smaller, less important places.
Example: Starbucks
The map partly shows it, but they would expand locally, they expanded to where there was demand (mainly from large city to large city and then spreading outward.)
The spread of Walmart is reverse hierarchical – from small, unimportant places to bigger.
There’s still no Walmart on the island of Manhattan

7. Contagious Diffusion
The rapid, widespread diffusion throughout a population.
Like the spread of a disease (hence, contagious)
Example: Spread of Islam

8. Modern Contagious Diffusion

9. Stimulus Diffusion
When part of an idea is spread, but not the whole idea itself.
Example: None of the Indian tribes in the what is today the USA had written language in Pre-Columbian times. Many however developed written languages after coming in contact with Europeans
Example: McDonalds serves lamb in India as cows are sacred to Hindus.

10. What is Geography?
Defined: description of the Earth’s surface and the people and processes that shape its landscapes
Literally means “earth writing”
Greeks were first to study and classify geography
During the Middle Ages Europe “ignored” geographic education but other countries in Asia and the Islamic World continued to learn about and study the world around them
The Age of Exploration re-opened Europe to the idea of geography and world understanding

12. Cultural Ecology
Cultural Ecology – the study of how humans and the environment interact
Old central theory – environmental determinism
Current central theory – environmental possibilism

13. The ideas of environmental determinism date way back to 64 BC, but don’t really coalesce into a coherent idea until the late 1800s.
Geographers wondered why Europeans had become so much more advanced than the rest of the world.
Native Americans, Sub-Saharan Africans, Aboriginal Australians, and New Guineans have been largely pushed aside by Europeans. Why?

14. Some people decide it’s because they have better genes.
In other words the belief that white people are better, stronger, smarter, etc.
Leads to things like eugenics.
More charitable (though still wrong people) will say it’s because of the environment in Europe, which leads to a school of thought called environmental determinism.
In other words, white people are not smarter, they’ve just been living in places that make it easier to thrive.

15. Environmental determinism
Definition - the belief that the environment causes ALL cultural development.
Determinists believe that individual decisions and social conditions have virtually no impact on the way societies develop.
According to determinists, how well your society develops is 100% dependent on where you live.
However, due to it’s Eurocentric bias and some flaws in the theory, it had largely been dropped by the 1940s when it returns in a mutated form as . . .

16. Environmental possibilism
Definition – the belief that the environment can limit a culture’s growth, however, but that people create culture as a group.
A softer view of environmental determinism, using some of the same ideas without all the harshness!
A lot of the discussion of the subject has died down as it’s often seen as racist, but some still say possibilism is a good way to explain European dominance in the world.

17. What the heck is the cultural landscape, anyway?
Carl Sauer – “The cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a cultural group. Culture is the agent, the natural are the medium, the cultural landscape is the result. ”
That’s beautiful. Let’s try something a little more precise:
The cultural landscape consists of material aspects of culture that characterize Earth’s surface.

18. Material aspects of culture that characterize Earth’s surface.
Buildings
Shrines
Signage
Economic and agricultural structures
Crops and agricultural fields
Transportation systems
Physical things
Sports and recreational facilities
Some would include people whose appearance shows their culture
Maracanã Stadium, Brazil
Green Revolution Farm, Ghana
Burj al Arab Hotel, UAE
Bank of England, UK
Front Runner Train, USA
Moai, Easter Island
Times Square, USA
Kyoto Knife Shrine, Japan
Central Park, USA

19. Map Generalization
To create a useful map, you have to do some generalization.
Creating a map with every possible bit of information on it will create a useless map
It will be too cluttered to be easily read
Very few people are looking for EVERYTHING at the same time, rather usually a specific thing.
Generalizing a map means excluding information that isn’t directly involved in what you’re planning for your map to accomplish.

20. Map Generalization Type 1
Induction
When map users add outside information and make conclusions.
The mountains get the most precipitation in Utah!

21. Map Generalization Type 2
Symbolization
Choosing the best symbols to accurately portray the data on the map.

22. Map Generalization Type 3
Simplification
Leaving off (or minimizing) details that will confuse the audience or make the map cluttered.
After simplification
Before simplification

23. Map Generalization Type 4
Categorization (sometimes classification)
Deciding where to break the data into categories.

24. Understanding Distribution through class size!
Arrangements of a feature in space
“how things are arranged”
3 Types of Distribution
Density
How many things per how much space
Density = class size
How many students per classroom

25. Canada’s Population Density
This is the end, BTW.

26. Distribution Concentration How closely packed together objects are
Clustered – tightly packed together
Dispersed – loosely packed together
Where are the students sitting in relation to each other.
You can have clustered concentration but low density.

27. Distribution Pattern Are the students arranged in a specific way?
Geometric arrangements in space.
Are the students arranged in a specific way?

28. Location The position that something occupies on Earth’s surface.
Place Name
Toponym
Site
Physical characteristics of a place
Situation
Relative location – where it is from someplace else
Mathematical Location
Latitude and Longitude/GPS Coordinates

29. GPS & GIS Global Positioning System Geographic Information System
Satellites can pinpoint your location anywhere on the Earth
Geographic Information System
A system to create, analyze, and manipulate many different types of geographic data
Just think Google Earth

30. Region Any area larger than a point, but smaller than a planet.
Classroom 224 – no
Davis County – yes!

31. Major Regions of the World
Also could be the region Latin America

32. Formal Region
An area that has the same (or nearly the same) of a specific characteristics.
All official government areas (states, counties, etc.) are formal regions.
Speaking of states, everyone needs to know that in the rest of the world, a state is a country. They generally use the term province for what we think of as states. When talking about the world, a state is a country!

33. Formal Region
BOOM!

34. Functional Region An area centered around a node or focal point.
The node is very influential in the center, less so the farther out you go.

35. Vernacular Region
An area where there is perceived to be a grouping of similarity.

36. Vernacular Region

37. From 3D Globe to 2D Map
Maps get around the “orange peel problem” by distorting the Earth’s features in one of four ways:
Distance – Are locations the same length apart on the map and in real life?
Direction – Is straight up on the map always north?
Shape – Do the outlines of countries look right?
Area – Are areas the same size on the map as they are in real life?

41. Here are some examples of interesting projections:

42. The projections that you need to know!
Azimuthal Equidistant, Mercator, Mollweide, Lambert Conic, Robinson, Lambert Conic, Gall-Peters, Winkel Tripel, Interrupted Goode Homolosine

43. Azimuthal Equidistant Projection
Abū al-Rayhān Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bīrūnī one of the greatest scholars of the medieval Islamic era and was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist. Abū created the first known Azimuthal Equidistant Projection sometime around 1000 CE.
Distorts: Area and Shape (but mostly far from the center of the map)
Maintains: Distance and Direction from the center of the map
Strengths:
You can accurately measure distance either from or through the center of the map.
Useful for pilots if the map is centered at their starting place.
Weaknesses:
Crazy distorted the farther out you get.
Distance and direction only measurable at or through the center.
Missed
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44. Check out my sweet hat! I’ve got it going on!
Mercator Projection
Since it was created in1569 by Gerardus Mercator, it has been a mainstay of maps
of the world
Distorts: Distance, shape, and area
Maintains: Direction
Strengths:
Navigating the oceans
Not much else (unless you count being rectangular)
Weaknesses:
You rarely see Mercator projections showing all the way to the poles because it is so distorted at the poles.
Africa is actually 14x larger than Greenland.
Antarctica is only the 5th largest continent, not ginormous.

45. Mollweide Projection Distorts: Distance, shape, and direction
Karl Mollweide invented in 1805 but didn’t
become popular as a projection until 1857,
more than 30 years after he died. 
Distorts: Distance, shape, and direction
Maintains: Area
Strengths:
You can accurately compare landmasses (hey, Greenland is only about the size of Mexico!)
Weaknesses:
Where Mercator distorts size like crazy, Mollweide distorts shape, smushing towards the poles
Missed
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46. Lambert Conic Projection
First created by J.H. Lambert in 1772 by Swiss mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and astronomer, became popular during WWI.
Distorts: Everything farther away from the line where the “cone” touches the globe.
Maintains: Everything close to the line where the “cone” meets the “globe.”
Strengths:
One of the projections most commonly used by pilots to plot courses
Great for intermediate scale maps -shows mid-latitude areas like the United States and Canada with very little distortion
Weaknesses:
Poor choice for world maps – way too much distortion farther out!
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47. Believe it or not, I was quite popular with the ladies
Believe it or not, I was quite popular with the ladies. I got invited to all the cool parties so I could explain my projection!
Robinson Projection
Created by Arthur H. Robinson in 1961, used by National Geographic from 1988 to 1998.
Distorts: Everything! (but only a little)
Maintains: Nothing! (It’s a compromise)
Strengths:
Still distorted at poles, but as you move towards the equator, it quickly becomes much less distorted.
And who really cares about the poles anyway? (REALLY, not too many people do)
As a compromise it does everything pretty well, but nothing great.
Weaknesses:
As a compromise it does everything pretty well, but nothing superb.
The Winkel Tripel projection is overall better (at least according to National Geographic.)
Not us!
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48. Gall-Peters Projection
New method of making 2D map of 3D world invented by James Gall (an astronomer who used it to map the stars) in 1855.
Arno Peters invents it again in 1967! (Most likely, he knew nothing about the Gall projection because he was not a cartographer, but a film-maker.)
Peters became interested in mapmaking to create a map that showed that the developing world (poorer countries around the equator) aren’t less important that the rich ones (generally in the north, stretched out by Mercator maps).
He campaigned against what he called “cartographic imperialism.”
Distorts: Shape, Distance
Maintains: Area, Direction
Strengths:
Supporters claim Gall-Peters is not racist (implying that Mercator maps are) and shows the world the way it should be!
Weaknesses:
Mercator maps had been largely discarded by geographers by the time Peters came around.
It has similar problems to Mercator, only exchanging shape for area.
There’s also the whole thing with him “inventing” something that had already been invented.
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49. Winkel Tripel Projection
Oswald Winkel was a man with a mission – make a map that minimized distortion! By golly, he did! His tripel projection from (triple in German, his third projection) is currently used by the National Geographic Society for world maps.
Distorts: Everything (but minimizes distortion of area, direction, and distance)
Maintains: Nothing (but area, direction, and distance are pretty close.)
Strengths: It’s good at everything, but perfect at nothing.
Weaknesses: It’s good at everything, but perfect at nothing.
This is NOT Oswald Winkel, who apparently was camera shy. This is Oswald Von Wolkenstein who popped up on the search results and just seemed really interesting.
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50. Interrupted Goode Homolosine Projection
John Paul Goode created the his interrupted projection in 1908.
Distorts: Most obviously, the surface of the Earth is not divided into chunks, also distance, direction, shape
Maintains: Area
Strengths:
Very useful in human geography because of lack of concern about the ocean. Rubenstein uses it extensively.
Thematic maps about language, population, or government
Or it can be great for ocean geography too!
Weaknesses:
The “orange peel” problem is obvious – the map is not continuous.
Missed
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54. Choropleth Maps Probably most commonly used for mixing maps and data
Choropleth maps depict attributes related to regions. They show the values of these attributes, i.e. the quantities, by color or patterns.
Pro + easy to produce and read
Pro + distribution patterns are easy to recognize
Con - badly misleading if inappropriately standardized
Con - cannot show variability within regions
Con - regions are often not appropriate for a theme

57. Dot Distribution Maps
Each dot in a dot map represents a fixed value. For population data, for example, this can be one inhabitant or any other amount. If additional information on location is available, it can be used for positioning the dots.
Good alternative to choropleth because size of counties doesn’t matter
Pro + show finer detail, actual distribution patterns
Pro + production made easier through GIS
Con – Need for LOTS of info
Con - unfamiliar
Con – if data unavailable, the dots are sometimes placed randomly – and they never tell you

60. Proportional Symbol Maps
Proportional symbol maps present data by symbols or diagrams located at points. The size of the symbol reflects the amount of the phenomenon.
Pro + large, open-ended choice of possible symbols from circles, bars, even platypi
Pro + no need to aggregate data to fixed regional units
Con - distribution patterns can be difficult to recognize
Con - danger of visual clutter

61. Same Data – 3 Maps

64. Isoline Maps
Isoline maps are used to depict smooth continuous phenomena. These phenomena are represented by interpolating lines of equal values Often used for height and temperature
Pro + familiar from topographic maps (terrain representation)
Pro + one type of map for continuous phenomena
Con - often misused
Con - suggesting detail that is not there

65. Isoline map of the moon!!!!!!!

66. Cartogram
Strictly speaking, they are not maps because countries are not drawn to scale, but they are handy at illustrating traits of countries/states.
Rather than show the countries by their size, the countries are shown according to the size of a particular statistic about them (often population) while maintaining the shape as much as possible so countries are identifiable.

67. Normal!