Social Studies Notes

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5 themes of geography are: location, place, human/environment interaction, movement, and region. Geography-The study of the earth and of the ways people who live and work on it.

Absolute location- its exact position on the globe.

Relative location- locating a place by thinking of places in relation.

Latitude- imaginary parallels that circle the earth horizontally 0 to 90 Longitude- Imaginary meridians that circle the globe vertically going from 0 to 180 Grid System- lines of latitude and longitude cross one another making a grid.

Interdependent- relying on each other for goods, services, and ideas.

Culture- way of life.

Scale- certain measurement on a map represents a certain measurement on the earth's surface.

Topography- physical features of the earth's surface.

Relief- differences in height or elevation.

Contour Lines- connect all points of equal elevation.

Special purpose map- maps that have a special purpose. Like road maps.

Great circle- shortest possible distance between any two places on the earth.

Map projection- way of representing the rounded earth on a flat surface.

Hemisphere- lines that cut the world on half.

Compass rose- direction marker.

Key- explains the symbols used on a map.

Mercator projection- shapes are fairly accurate but size and distance aren't. From the idea of wrapping a piece of paper in a cone shape and placing it on the globe.

Azimuthal projection- polar projection. Size and shape are distorted but distance and direction are accurate.

Conic projection- idea of placing a cone over a part of the globe. Accurate for small areas.

Diagrams- drawing showing how something or what something is done.

Charts and tables- show facts arranged in columns and rows.

Graphs-bar graph- shows comparisons. Line graph- shows changes in two variables. Circle graph- percentages to show how the parts of the whole compare.

Pictographs- special graphs using pictures.

Atmosphere- the air that surrounds the earth.

Earth measurements- earth is 93 million miles from the sun.

Hydrosphere- the water that makes up some of the earth biosphere- part of the earth where life is found/