Geography - Unit 1 - Study Guide PDF

Unit 1 - Study Guide Geography - Period 4 Provinces and Capitals: 1. Yukon - Whitehorse 2. Northwest Territories - Yellowknife 3. Nunavut - Iqaluit 4. British Columbia - Victoria 5. Alberta - Edmonton 6. Saskatchewan - Regina 7. Manitoba - Winnipeg 8. Ontario - Toro...

Unit 1 - Study Guide Geography - Period 4 Provinces and Capitals: 1. Yukon - Whitehorse 2. Northwest Territories - Yellowknife 3. Nunavut - Iqaluit 4. British Columbia - Victoria 5. Alberta - Edmonton 6. Saskatchewan - Regina 7. Manitoba - Winnipeg 8. Ontario - Toronto 9. Quebec - Quebec City 10. Nova Scotia - Halifax 11. New Brunswick - Fredericton 12. Newfoundland and Labrador - St. John’s 13. Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown Canada’s capital - Ottawa Great Lakes: + Lake Ontario + Lake Huron + Lake Eerie + Lake Michigan  + Lake Superior Other bodies of water: - Arctic Ocean = On top of Canada - Pacific Ocean = Left of Canada - Atlantic Ocean = Right of Canada - Hudson Bay = In the middle of Canada - Mackenzie River = Longest river in Canada - St. Lawrence River = River that goes into the Atlantic Ocean It is important to know where places are in Canada because: Help you with work (navigation) Helps us understand the history and geography of Canada. Helps us understand where places are. It can be asked in a job interview and citizenship test. What is Geography? Geography is the science that tries to understand how the Earth works and how humans change it. This science examines the Earth’s surface and the processes that shape it. Geography especially looks at the relationship between people and the Earth’s physical environment. To understand our relationship with the Earth, geographers ask questions and search for answers to problems. By exploring these problems, we can make better and wiser decisions. Geographers try to answer 3 questions: Where are things located on Earth? What are the connections between people and the Earth? How can we illustrate this information to understand it better? Geography has 2 main focuses: The Earth’s physical geography (natural things) The Earth’s human geography (people and things related to people and cities). What is a Map? A map is a representation of the Earth’s features drawn on a flat surface. Maps use symbols and colors to represent features of an area, simplifying the real world. Every map need to have these 4 elements: - Title = Identifies the area show, topic, focus or purpose of the map. - Legend = Explains the meaning of symbols and colors. - Scale = Represents the relationship between distance on the map distance in the real world. - Direction = Represented with an arrow or a compass. How to Label a Map: Cartography is the art of drawing accurate, easily readable, attractive maps. Labeling: - Should be neat as possible - Should be printed in pencil first, then neatly copied in ink. (erase pencil lines after) - Should be spelled correctly - Printed parallel to the base of the map. A dot should be used when labeling cities, placing the name of the city as close as possible. - Do not underline labels - Labels should not block other information on the map. Coloring/Shading: - Maps should be properly color coded using different colors to show the different areas on the map. - Shade consistently to avoid light and dark patches. - White or black should not be used as a color on a map. - Grey should be used for areas that are not important. - Blue is only to be used for water. Compass Rose: Scale The relationship between the size of features on the earth’s surface and the same features on the map is shown by map scale. A map is simply a small representation of a larger area. Large scale maps: These maps give a large amount of detail for a small area. (eg. a road or city map) Small scale maps: These maps have a small amount of detail for a large area. (eg. a world map) If the scale is 1: A number greater than 5000000 than its small scale. If the scale is 1: A number less than 5000000 than its large scale. Methods of Showing Scale: a. Ratio or Representative Fraction: The scale has no units and is written in a ration form (eg. 1:50,000). b. Verbal Scale: This scale is given in written form (eg. 1 cm to 10 km) c. Linear Scale: This scale uses a line divided into equal parts to give the scale of the map. Converting Scale: Ratio to Verbal → Move decimal 5 digits to the left. Eg. 1:50 000 → 1 cm to 0.5 km Verbal to Ratio → Move decimal 5 digits to the right Eg. 1 cm to 10 km → 1: 1 000 000 Hemispheres: Hemisphere means half a sphere. Countries and continents can be located by the hemisphere (eg. Canada is located in the northern and western hemisphere). There are four hemispheres in the world. They are: + The northern and southern hemispheres + The eastern and western hemispheres Longitude and Latitude Latitude lines, or parallels of latitude are imaginary lines east-west around the earth. They are like parallel circles drawn around the globe and are measured in degrees north or south of the equator. The equator is 0 degrees. Longitude lines are imaginary lines that go north to south around the earth. They are used to measure distance east or west of the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian is an imaginary line marked 0 degrees. Greenwich, England is on the Prime Meridian. Measuring: Latitude lines give the position of a place in degrees north or south of the equator. Longitude lines give the position of a place in degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian. When lines of latitude and lines of longitude are placed together, they form a network of lines or grid. Using such a map grid, it is possible to find the position of any place on earth’s surface. On some map projections, the grid lines are curved like the earth’s surface, for greater accuracy. Time Zones Different countries use different times. Longitude helps determine which timezone you are located within. - There are 360 degrees of longitude going around the Earth. - If we divide 360 by 24 hours we get 15 degrees per hour. Different parts of the world have noon at different times, we need to have time zones. (If the earth had one time zone, some places would have noon at 12 pm while others would have it at 1am) Sir Sandford Fleming (a Canadian) proposed the world system of 24 one hour time zones. Every place with a single time zone sets its clock to the same time. It adopted the meridian that runs through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England as the Prime Meridian. The time in this zone is called Universal Time. Areas to the East of the Prime Meridian have local times ahead of Universal Time. Areas to the West of the Prime Meridian have local times behind Universal Time. Some countries modify their time zones to fit their needs. For example, China has one standard time despite the fact that it covers 60 degrees of longitude. However, Canada has 6 time zones. Canada’s time zones: - Pacific = PST (Pacific Standard Time) - Mountain = MST (Mountain Standard Time) - Central = CST (Central Standard Time) - Eastern = EST (Eastern Standard Time) - Atlantic = AST (Atlantic Standard Time) - NFLD = NST (NFLD Standard Time) Provinces and Territories in these time zones: + Pacific → British Columbia and Yukon + Mountain →Some parts of British Columbia (on the right side), Alberta, Northwest Territories and a part of Nunavut + Central → Saskatchewan, Manitoba, middle part of Nunavut, and some part of Ontario  + Eastern→ The small islands on the right of Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec + Atlantic → Half of Newfoundland and Labrador ( The part connected to Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I + NFLD → The other part of Newfoundland and Labrador. When going ← that way minus 1 hour When going → that way add an hour When going ← that way starting with NFLD minus half and hour (only for NFLD) When going → that way and ending with NFLD add half hour Map Projections Map projections can be defined as the features of the globe transferred onto a paper form in the means of a map. → There are hundreds of different ways that maps can be projected. → There are advantages and disadvantages to these projections. → With every map projection there is some distortion or inaccuracy. → Some land masses will seem larger or smaller than they are in real life. → Different map projections can also distort the direction of the compass rose. Mercator Projection: Accurately shows the navigation of the compass bearing between points. Distorts sizes, it makes the land masses closer to the poles are larger and closer to the equator smaller. Became the standard map because it was widely used. Some nations felt like they were underrepresented with this map. Winkel Triple: Is the correct standard world map. Compromises between all the distortion. The size, direction, shape and distance are all balanced. More representation of the Earth.