Ancient Greeks
Organized and separated knowledge; terrestrial world vs. space
Eratosthenes
Coined the word “Geography”; Geo- means earth; graphia- means the description
Geography
The study of the spatial and temporal patterns of the Earth and its inhabitants
What do geographers ask?
- Where are things located?
- Why are they positioned the way they are?
- How did they come to occupy that position?
What are the two sections of geography
Human geography and Physical geography
What do human geographers ask?
– How could deaths have been prevented? – Did people get the warning? – What warning source do people turn to? – Did people heed the warning? – How will people perceive storms now?
What do physical geographers ask?
– Why did this occur here? – What conditions caused this? – Do most strong tornadoes occur during daylight hours? – How often do strong tornadoes occur in this area?
subfields of physical geography
- Geomorphology
- Climatology
- Biogeography
- Soil Geography
- Marine Geography
- Water Resources
Of the top 25 deadliest tornadoes in the United States, the state
of Georgia has seen two
▪ #5 Gainesville, GA, April 6, 1936 (203 killed)
▪ #17 Gainesville, GA, June 1, 1903 (98 killed)
Scientific method
- Identify a question
- Gather information
- Form a hypothesis
- Design and perform an experiment
- Analyze experiment and evaluate the hypothesis
theory
– Supported by experiments
– Generally accepted among
scientists
law
– Basic fact
– Fundamental principles believed to
hold true without exception
– Confirming evidence
systems
Systems are groups of
components that work together
or “interact”
Interactions are exchanges of
- Energy
- Mass (matter)
- Momentum
You define a system by…
- DEFINING THE COMPONENTS
- UNDERSTANDING HOW THE COMPONENTS REACT
ex: resivior
Open system
– Energy, mass, and momentum move freely across its boundaries
ex: a glass of water or river or komodo dragon
closed system
– A self-contained system with no exchange of matter across its
boundaries
ex: closed water bottles or water cycle
system in equilibrium
– Any gains must be balanced by losses
isolated systems
– A self-contained system with no exchange of matter or energy across its boundaries
-the universe is the only perfect one; a Thermus
is close
feedbacks
• Feedbacks are a chain of interactions that affect (feeds back
on) some initial disturbance
positive feedbacks
- Amplifies initial disturbance
* Global Warming- speeds up warming
Negative feedbacks
- Reduces initial disturbance
* Global Warming (again?!)- slows down warming
models
• A model is a simplified
representations of the world that
contains processes and features
that are of interest
The scientific community uses SI (Systeme International)
– Meters, seconds, kelvin, grams etc.
– Based on a system of 10•Kilo (10^3)•Hecto (10^2)•Deca (10^1)•Deci (10^-1)•Centi (10^-2)•Milli (10^-3)
– Ex: kilometer
