1. How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?

2.  A map is a traditional geographical tool ◦ Cartography – science of mapmaking  Maps serve two purposes ◦ Store reference materials  Help people from Point A to Point B ◦ Communicate geographical information  Depicting the distribution of human activities or physical features

3.  Thales – used geometry to measure land area  Anaximander – used information from sailors  Hecateus – thought to have produced the first geography book  Aristotle – first to show that Earth was spherical  Eratosthenes – prepared the earliest map dividing the world into five climatic regions

4. Hundreds of years after Ptolemy’s Guide to Geography, European cartographers created maps that were more fanciful and less scientific.

5. Muslim geographer created a map that built upon Ptolemy’s work.

6.  Scale is the relationship between the porion of Earth being studies and Earth as a whole. ◦ Specifically this is the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth’s surface.  Projection is the method of transferring locations on Earth’s surface to a flat map. ◦ The can lead to distortions in shape and direction, inaccurate distances, and alteration of relative sizes

7.  As time has progressed, geographers have access to more technologically advanced tools: ◦ Geographical Information System ◦ Remote Sensing ◦ Global Positioning System

8.  Computer system that can store, query, analyze and display geographical data  This can be used to create maps that are more accurate and attractive than those drawn by hand  GIS allows geographers to calculate whether objects on a map are significant or coincidental

10.  Acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite in orbit or other long-distance methods  Remote sensing is primarily used for environmental purposes. ◦ Human geographers use remote sensing to see the impact of urban sprawl

11. Accurately determines the precise position of something on Earth