Introduction to MAPS! [AP Human Geography Review—Unit 1 Topic 1]

Summary

Steve Heimler introduces AP Human Geography students to the critical role of maps in understanding spatial patterns. He explains different types of spatial patterns, map features like scale and direction, and the distinction between reference and thematic maps. Heimler also highlights five common map projections, discussing their distortions and uses, emphasizing the Robinson projection's balanced approach. His engaging style aims to demystify geography for students seeking to excel in their exams.

Takeaways

• 🌏 The script introduces the importance of maps in AP Human Geography, emphasizing their role in depicting spatial patterns of geographic features.
• 📚 Steve Heimler, the instructor, likens the AP class to a 'giant Hairy Beast' to convey its initial daunting nature but promises to break it down for students.
• 🔍 The concept of 'spatial patterns' is explained as the arrangement of geographic features on Earth's surface, which geographers analyze for underlying reasons.
• 📏 Four types of spatial patterns are discussed: absolute distance, relative distance, absolute direction, relative direction, clustering and dispersal, and elevation.
• 📐 The script explains map features like scale, direction, and the difference between map scale and the scale of the map's view.
• 🗺️ Reference maps are defined as those displaying geographic locations, such as road or political maps, and are contrasted with thematic maps.
• 🎨 Thematic maps are specialized for displaying geographic information, with five types highlighted: choropleth, cartogram, graduated symbol, dot distribution, and isoline maps.
• 📈 The script uses examples, like the cholera outbreak in London, to illustrate how thematic maps can reveal spatial relationships and solve real-world problems.
• 🌍 Map projections are discussed, showing how no map can perfectly represent the Earth's three-dimensional surface on a two-dimensional plane.
• 📊 Five key map projections are introduced: Mercator, Peters, Goode's homolosine, polar, and Robinson, each with its own advantages and distortions.
• 🔗 The instructor promotes an AP Human Geography review guide as a resource for students to achieve high scores on their exams.

Q & A

What is the main focus of AP Human Geography, according to Steve Heimler?

The main focus of AP Human Geography, as explained by Steve Heimler, is to understand spatial patterns and how geographic features are arranged on the Earth's surface. It involves the study of maps, which are at the heart of the discipline.

What does the term 'spatial patterns' refer to in the context of geography?

In the context of geography, 'spatial patterns' refers to the study of how and where different geographic features occur on the Earth's surface, and the analysis of their arrangement.

What are the four distinct kinds of spatial patterns that Steve Heimler mentions in the script?

The four distinct kinds of spatial patterns mentioned are absolute distance, relative distance, absolute direction, and relative direction.

How does Steve Heimler describe the difference between absolute distance and relative distance?

Absolute distance is a measurable distance in feet, miles, or kilometers, while relative distance measures social, cultural, or political differences or similarities between two locations.

What is the significance of maps in the study of human geography?

Maps are significant in the study of human geography because they are tools that depict spatial patterns, helping geographers understand the arrangement of geographic features and the reasons behind it.

What are the common features of a map that Steve Heimler discusses?

The common features of a map discussed by Steve Heimler include the map scale, direction indicators like a compass rose, and the representation of the Earth's surface at various scales.

What are the two broad categories of maps that Steve Heimler introduces?

The two broad categories of maps introduced by Steve Heimler are reference maps and thematic maps.

What is the purpose of a choropleth map in thematic mapping?

A choropleth map visualizes data from specific geographic regions using different colors, allowing for the analysis of data distribution across areas.

How does a cartogram differ from a traditional map?

A cartogram distorts the size of geographic shapes to display differences in data, making it easier to visualize variations in data such as resource allocation or population density.

What is the concept of 'selective representation' in maps as discussed by Steve Heimler?

Selective representation in maps refers to the idea that all maps choose what information to display and are therefore inherently distorted in some way, reflecting a compromise between accuracy and representation.

What are the five map projections that Steve Heimler highlights, and what is the trade-off each makes?

The five map projections highlighted are the Mercator Projection, Peter's Projection, Goode's Homolographic Projection, Polar Projection, and Robinson Projection. Each projection makes a trade-off between accuracy in shape, size, or direction, with distortion being distributed differently across the map.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Introduction to AP Human Geography and the Importance of Maps

Steve Heimler introduces himself as the instructor for AP Human Geography, a course that might initially seem daunting but is broken down into manageable parts by the teacher. The video emphasizes the central role of maps in human geography, explaining that they are essential tools for depicting spatial patterns on Earth's surface. Spatial patterns refer to the distribution and arrangement of geographic features. The instructor outlines four types of spatial patterns: absolute distance, relative distance, absolute direction, relative direction, clustering and dispersal, and elevation. The explanation includes examples to clarify these concepts. The video also covers the basic features of maps, such as scale, direction indicators, and the representation of the Earth's surface at different scales. Reference maps and thematic maps are introduced as two broad categories of maps that students need to understand, with reference maps showing specific geographic locations and thematic maps displaying geographic information allocations.

05:01

🗺️ Understanding Thematic Maps and Map Projections

This paragraph delves into the specifics of thematic maps, which are designed to display geographic information through various visualization techniques. Five types of thematic maps are discussed: choropleth maps that use color to represent data from specific regions, cartograms that distort landmass sizes to reflect data differences, graduated symbol maps that use symbols scaled to represent data, dot distribution maps that plot data points using dots, and isoline maps that use lines to show data changes, often in elevation. The instructor uses historical examples, such as John Snow's use of a dot distribution map to identify the source of a cholera outbreak, to illustrate the practical applications of these maps. The latter part of the summary addresses the inherent distortion in maps due to the challenge of representing a three-dimensional Earth on a two-dimensional surface. Five types of map projections are introduced: Mercator, Peter's, Goode's homolosine, polar, and Robinson, each with its own strengths and distortions. The Robinson projection is highlighted as a modern preference among geographers for its balanced approach to minimizing distortion.

Keywords

💡Human Geography

Human Geography is the study of human societies and their relationships with the environment. It is central to the video's theme, as the instructor, Steve Heimler, is teaching AP Human Geography. The video emphasizes the importance of maps in understanding spatial patterns of human activities and geographic features.

💡Spatial Patterns

Spatial patterns refer to the arrangement and distribution of geographic features across the Earth's surface. The concept is integral to the video's narrative, as it explains how geographers analyze the location and organization of cities, for example, to understand underlying social, economic, and environmental factors.

💡Absolute Distance

Absolute distance is a measurable distance in physical units like feet, miles, or kilometers. In the script, it is contrasted with relative distance to illustrate the difference between physical space and perceived social or cultural space, using the example of the distance between Yosemite National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.

💡Relative Distance

Relative distance measures the social, cultural, or political differences between locations, rather than physical space. The video uses an income disparity map of Brooklyn, New York, to demonstrate how areas close in absolute distance can be far apart in terms of relative distance due to lifestyle and economic factors.

💡Absolute Direction

Absolute direction refers to the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west. The video explains that while maps depict absolute direction, relative direction, which is based on landmarks or known locations, is often more useful for navigation.

💡Relative Direction

Relative direction describes the position of one location in relation to another, often using landmarks or nearby features as reference points. The script contrasts it with absolute direction, using the example of navigating a school campus, to highlight its practicality in everyday life.

💡Clustering and Dispersal

Clustering and dispersal are spatial patterns that show how phenomena are organized across an area. The video uses the examples of apartment buildings in New York City clustering together and farms in the Midwest being dispersed to illustrate these concepts.

💡Elevation

Elevation measures the height of geographic features relative to sea level. It is a key spatial pattern depicted on maps, as mentioned in the video, and is important for understanding the physical landscape and its impact on human activities.

💡Map Scale

Map scale is the ratio or representation of distances on the map to actual distances in the real world. The video explains that while a map scale indicates how distances are represented, the scale of the map itself refers to the extent of the world depicted, with larger scales showing more detail for smaller areas.

💡Reference Maps

Reference maps display specific geographic locations, such as roads on a road map or political boundaries on a political map. The video emphasizes their importance as a fundamental type of map, providing essential information about the location of features.

💡Thematic Maps

Thematic maps specialize in displaying geographic information related to specific themes or topics, such as population density or climate zones. The video introduces different types of thematic maps, including choropleth maps, cartograms, and dot distribution maps, to illustrate various data visualization techniques.

💡Map Projections

Map projections are methods used to represent the three-dimensional Earth on a two-dimensional surface. The video discusses various projections, such as the Mercator and Robinson projections, to explain the inherent distortions that occur when translating the spherical Earth onto a flat map.

Highlights

Introduction to AP Human Geography and its relation to maps as fundamental tools.

Explanation of spatial patterns and how they are represented on maps.

Definition of absolute distance and its representation on maps.

Introduction of relative distance and its social, cultural, or political implications.

Description of absolute direction and its cardinal orientation on maps.

Concept of relative direction and its usefulness in navigation.

Discussion on clustering and dispersal as spatial patterns on maps.

Importance of elevation in mapping and its representation.

Identification of common map features such as scale, direction, and representation of the Earth's surface.

Differentiation between reference maps and thematic maps.

Description of choropleth maps and their use in displaying geographic data.

Explanation of cartograms and their distortion for data representation.

Introduction to graduated symbol maps and their proportional representation of data.

Use of dot distribution maps in historical disease tracking and data visualization.

Explanation of isoline maps and their depiction of data changes, particularly in elevation.

Discussion on the selectivity and distortion inherent in all maps.

Overview of different map projections and their respective distortions.

Critique of the Mercator Projection and its historical context.

Introduction of the Peters Projection and its challenge to the Eurocentric view.

Description of the Goode's Homolographic Projection and its shape accuracy.

Explanation of the Polar Projection and its accuracy near the center.

Advantages of the Robinson Projection as a compromise among map projections.

Conclusion and call to action for using the AP Human Geography review guide for exam preparation.

Transcripts

okay look at this map and tell me if you

can see what's wrong with it do you see

it okay try this map what's wrong with

this one okay well here's another and it

also has something very wrong about in

fact I'll go one step further and say

every one of these map s is allowed

memories well stick with me and I'll

show you exactly what's wrong with those

Maps but we got some ground to cover

first this is the first time we're

meeting up my name is Steve heimler and

you are taking AP Human Geography which

for a lot of you is your first AP core

and I know this class can seem like a

giant Hairy Beast with meatball breath

that could curl your toe hairs but stick

with me because I'm about to split up

everything real nice for you so if

you're ready to get them brain cows

milks well let's get to it okay if you

are hoping to crush that AP exam in your

mind Vice then you have to begin at the

beginning and get real cozy with maps

because these sweet little bippies are

at the very heart of the discipline of

human geography and the reason maps are

so important is because they are tools

that depict spatial patterns all right

now hold on I just started hurling

vocabulary around like a cold fish at a

Seaside Market so let me Define what I'm

talking about the word spatial is

related to the word space so spatial

patterns are concerned with how and

where different geographic features

occur on the Earth's surface so for

example look at where the 10 largest U.S

cities are located on this map and what

a geographer gets positively giddy about

is trying to figure out why these cities

are spatially arranged like this and not

like this or what does it mean that the

two most populous cities are on opposite

sides of the country why does Texas have

three of the largest cities but this

area up here has got Buck okay now there

are four distinct kinds of spatial

patterns you're going to see represented

in maps first is absolute distance which

is a distance that could be measured in

feet or miles or if you're nasty

kilometers for example the absolute

distance between Yosemite National Park

and Rocky Mountain National Park is 954

miles however there's a related concept

that cannot be depicted on maps namely a

relative distance which measures social

cultural or political differences or

similarities between two locations for

example this is a map showing the income

levels across a neighborhood in Brooklyn

New York you see this little green

square people who live there make a lot

of money and likely perform their

morning constitutional on gold-plated

toilets but the people who live here in

the red square if they make very little

money so these two areas are only a

block apart in terms of absolute

distance but in terms of relative

distance they're much further apart in

terms of the lifestyles that people are

living in each place okay the second

kind of spatial pattern depicted on maps

is absolute Direction which is

essentially north south east and west

also known as cardinal direction but

again there is a related concept that

cannot be depicted on maps namely a

relative Direction which describes one

location in reference to another for

example if you're a freshman you don't

know your way around your school yet

maybe you need to ask your teacher for

directions to your second period

classroom if your teacher gives you

absolute directions let's just go North

by Northwest for 32 paces and then do

East for 14 paces and you'll find well

then you might as well drop out of

school because you're never going to

find that class but if she says take a

left out of my room or write down the

next hall and then you'll find it well

then that's actually kind of helpful and

that's what we mean by relative

Direction now the third spatial pattern

depicted on maps is clustering and

dispersal both of which show how

different phenomena are organized across

an area a phenomena are cluster that

means they're close together like

apartment buildings in New York City but

a phenomena are dispersed that means

they're far apart like farms in the

Midwest and then finally the fourth

spatial pattern depicted on maps is

elevation which measures the height of

geographic features relative to sea

level this part right here is real high

and this part is real low okay now any

map worth itself is going to have a few

common features and you need to know

what they mean first you have the map

scale which tells you how distance on

the map relates to distance in the real

world and you might see it like this in

a ratio of form or you might see it

represented by a bar but they're both

telling you the same thing second Maps

include some way to reckon Direction and

usually this is represented by a compass

rose which indicates the cardinal

directions north south east and west or

if the compass rose is a little spicier

it might give you intermediate

directions as well and third Maps depict

the Earth's surface at various scales

hold on didn't we just talk about scale

like 30 seconds ago kind of but this is

not the same thing so pay attention a

map scale tells us about distance but

the scale of the map tells us how much

of the world we're seeing on this map

and this is about the whole map itself

so a large scale map zooms into a

particular area and has a lot more

detail but a small scale map zooms out

to a national or global scale and has

less detail so don't get those two

confused too late okay now there are two

broad categories of maps that you need

to know for this course namely reference

maps and thematic Maps but hey before I

explain that let me ask you a question

do you want to get an A in this class in

a five on your exam in May I thought you

did well if you need help making that

happen then click the link in the

description and check out my AP Human

Geography High the review guide which

has everything you need to study as fast

as possible it's got exclusive whole

unit review videos no guides to follow

along practice multiple choice questions

of full length practice exam and answers

for every dank thing I just mentioned so

if doing well is the kind of thing

you're into then get that clicky finger

out and have a look anyway back to the

two kinds of maps you need to know first

you need to know about reference Maps

which display specific Geographic

locations for example here's a road map

which shows the location of you know

roads or highways or here's a political

map which doesn't show roads but instead

shows the boundaries of states and

countries probably for most of you when

you think about the maps that you've

seen in your life you're thinking about

reference and the most important thing

to remember here is that reference Maps

display Geographic locations and I

emphasize that because the other

category of map you need to know is

thematic maps and they specialize in

displaying geographic information

allocations information if you're about

as confused as a bagel and a bucket of

grits well let me try to explain the

difference by showing you the five kinds

of thematic Maps you're going to see

over and over again in this course first

is the choropleth map which visualizes

data from a specific geographic region

in different colors so let's suppose

that they the questions keeping you up

at night is how many anglicans live in

Australia and where do they live I know

it's like I'm inside your brain anyway a

choropleth map like this can help you

answer that question in order to

interpret this mishmash of colors you

need to pay attention to this scale

right here so that tells us that the

darker the green the more anglicans

there are in a location and the lighter

the green the fewer smell it when I'm

stepping in good okay now the second

kind of thematic map you need to know is

a cartogram which distorts the size of

geographic shapes to display differences

in data so here's what a normal world

map looks like it's a lie I know I I'll

get there I will get that I suppose you

wanted to know which of the world's

countries devoted most of its resources

to organic farming well this cartogram

is going to tell you I know this looks

like less of a map and more like

somebody ate a map and vomited it back

up but look it's actually very helpful

just by distorting the sizes of the land

masses you can see easily that Australia

is positively killing it when it comes

to organic farming Russia not so much

okay now the Third Kind of thematic map

you need to know is the graduated symbol

map or you might see this called a

proportional map two different names

same thing and why well because a b

Human Geography hates anyway graduated

means that the symbol grows in

proportion to the data represented for

example here's a map of Europe which

tells us which countries are the

wealthiest over here in Western Europe

they got boom boom flowing like a river

but in Eastern Europe well I mean you

guys are doing just great you just

believe in yourself okay now The Fourth

Kind of thematic map you need to know is

the dot distribution map which uses dots

to visualize the location of certain

data points hey I can see you're

starting to glaze over but stay with me

it's story time so back in the mid-1800s

there was an outbreak of a disease in

London called cholera and it was making

a lot of people really sick on account

of it made them poop until they were

severely dehydrated so that's fun anyway

the best explanation people can figure

out as to why this disease was spreading

so rapidly was because of bad air that's

it that was the best they could do but

then came along our boy Jon Snow who

visited every place where an infection

occurred and then plotted them on a wait

for it dot distribution map which you

can see right here in doing this he

discovered that the infections were

spatially arranged around a common water

pump and long story short he discovered

that the people were getting sick

because the water was contaminated why

are you not falling out of your seats

right now that's

honesty okay whatever or instead of

disease you might see a map like this in

which the dots represent population so

we can see that in Sweden everyone lives

down here and not so much up here in the

butt cold Arctic Circle okay finally the

fifth kind of thematic map you need to

know is the isoline map which uses lines

to depict changes in data that could be

any kind of data but you'll probably see

this most often in maps depicting

changes in elevation so here where the

lines are close that means data is

changing rapidly in this case you're

looking at a really steep hill but if

the lines are further apart the data is

changing slowly like here where it's

just sort of a gradual descent okay now

that we've become relatively cozy and

acquainted with what maps are and what

they are good for we can finally figure

out what's wrong with all those Maps I

showed you in the beginning here's where

I tell you that all maps are selective

in what they present and distorted in

some way and let me explain in case you

didn't know the Earth is a sphere and if

there are any flat earthers watching

this well you know I mean this probably

is not the course for you but I still

love you but anyway the Earth is a

sphere and any attempt to represent a

three-dimensional object on a

two-dimensional map will always mean

that something doesn't look right that

there's going to be some kind of a lie

in every man the best way to understand

this is to consider five different map

projections that you're going to need to

know first is the Mercator Projection

which is a map whose latitude and

longitude lines meet at right angles

which means that it's a really good map

for determining Direction but the LIE of

this map is that while landforms are

accurate near the equator the further

north or south you go you're going to

see prodigious amounts of distortion

this map was created by Europeans during

the age of Discovery and it was very

useful for guiding ships to distant

lands and bonus it makes Europe look way

bigger than it really is anyway the

classic example of Mercator Distortion

is Greenland on the Mercator map

Greenland is about five metric butt

loads larger than it is in real life

look if we move it down to the equator

you can see its true size and oh look

how cute it is okay the second map

projection you need to know is the

Peter's projection which was developed

to challenge the eurocentric Mercator

projection by depicting continents

according to the true size of their land

but the lie here is that while the size

of the land masses are accurate the true

shape of them is uh wonky as hell okay

the third map projection to know is the

good homolysing projection which

accurately represents the shapes of the

land masses but has to break up the

oceans to do so which is you know a lot

and then the fourth map projection you

need to know is the polar projection

which views the world from the North or

South Pole this kind of projection

directions are true and the land shapes

are accurate near the middle but

Distortion is pretty obvious As you move

from the center and finally The Fifth

map projection you need to know is the

Robinson projection which distributes

all kinds of distortion to all parts of

the map and in this way it's a kind of

compromise between the Mercator and

Peter's projections there is some

Distortion in the land masses but it's

pretty minimal and that's why modern

geographers tend to prefer the Robinson

projection Okay click here to keep

reviewing for unit one and click here to

grab my AP hug heimler review guide if

you need help getting an A in your class

and a five on your examine thanks for

coming around and I'll catch on the

flip-flop heimler out