WJ Reading Check
How does geography help explain the past?
Geography is the study of the earth and of the ways people live and work on it. Geography helps explain why people live the way they do. Geography also helps explain the past by answering questions about why certain events occurred where they did. Geographers use six essential elements to help explain what a place is like and why it is like that.
|n Reading Check
Whaf does absolute location tell you about a place?
The World in Spatial Terms Geographers first look at where a place is located. Location serves as a starting point by asking "Where is it?" Knowing the location of places helps you to position yourself in space and to develop an awareness of the world around you.
There are two types of location: absolute and relative. Absolute location refers to the exact location of a place on the earth's surface. For example, the capital of Kenya—Nairobi—is located at one place and one place only. No other place on Earth has exactly the same location.
Mrj Reading Check
How do you determine a place's relative location?
Student Web Activity
Visit the Human Heritage Web site at| humanheritaae. alencoe. com and click on Chapter 1— Student Web Activities to find out more about the study of geography.
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PLACES AND REGIONS A place such as the Moi Avenue in Mombasa, Kenya, shown here can be described easily. It is the avenue with the huge crossed elephant tusks. What other details could be included in a description of this place?
Relative location refers to the position of a place in relation to other places. Nairobi is located north of Mt. Kilimanjaro, west of the Indian Ocean, and southeast of Lake Turkana. Using this information, Nairobi can be found on a map of Africa if Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Indian Ocean, and Lake Turkana are located. A place may be described with many different relative locations.
Places and Regions Geographers also look at places and regions. Place includes those features and characteristics that give an area its own identity or personality. These can be physical characteristics—such as landforms, climate, plants, and animals. Places can also be described by their human characteristics. These characteristics tell how many people live in a place, what language they speak, and what they do for a living. Knowing about a place's soil and about how its people make a living tells more about it than just its location. The physical and human characteristics of Nairobi, for example, make it a place that is different from Tokyo.
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To make sense of all the complex things in the world, geographers often group places or areas into regions. Regions are areas that share one or more common characteristics. Regions can be defined by their physical features, such as the kind of land found there. The Sahara is a desert region. Regions can also be defined by their human features, such as the religion people practice, the language they speak, or the way they earn a living. A region that shares a common language, such as Quebec, where most people speak French, is such a region.
Physical Systems When studying places and regions, geographers look at how physical systems—such as volcanoes, glaciers, and hurricanes—act together to shape the earth's surface. They also look at ecosystems, or communities of plants and animals that are dependent upon one another and their particular surroundings for survival.
Human Systems Geographers also examine human systems, or how people have shaped our world. They look at how boundary lines that divide countries and states are drawn and analyze why people settle in certain places and not in others.
An important theme in geography is the continual movement of goods, people, and ideas. Movement has brought the world's people closer together. Transportation—the movement of goods
Reading Check
What is a region?
World History
