Waldo tobler who created the first law of geography once said everything is related to everything else but near things are more related than distance thing this means that people are more likely to interact with other people places and things that are close to them and that people are less likely to interact with different places people and things that are farther away this happens because of a concept known as distance Decay this is why when it's time for you to go get your school supplies you probably just go to the nearest store instead of driving to a different state or why longdistance relationships are sometimes hard to work out the farther away you are from people the less likely you are to interact now while tobler is still right there have been quite a few changes in the last decade which has led to a shift in how we interact with different places and people take for example your smartphone which was created thanks to a large Global supply chain that consists of different places around the world here we can see that different interactions around the world work together in order to produce the smartphone that we know today at the bottom of the supply chain we have countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo Brazil Chile Argentina Zimbabwe Australia and China which extract Rare Minerals such as gold tin tantalum lithium and tungsten once the raw resources are collected they get refined and then we move into the manufacturing process which is done in different stages we can see that parts of the cell phone are assembled in China South Korea Japan Singapore or India just to name a few once all the different individual components are created they are shipped to a factory so that they can be assembled and become the smartphone that we all know today today foxcon is one of the largest technology manufacturers in the world with factories in China Brazil the Czech Republic India Japan Malaysia Mexico South Korea and the United States of America currently China is the largest manufacture of mobile phones in the world but India is quickly catching up after manufacturing the phones need to be packaged and then shipped to the market for sale which often happens through air or sea after the phones reach the port they are loaded onto a semi and sent to either a storage facility or to your local store for your purchase this does not even account for the people who had to come up with the idea for the phone the design of the components The Branding and the company that had to organize all these different stages and operations of the supply chain when it's all said and done we can see that the production of a smartphone creates connections between different countries regions governments businesses and people around the world interactions are happening on a global scale new jobs are created money is transferred new ideas are shared through collaboration governments build new relationships and the economies of different places become interconnected and that's just scratching the surface we can see that over time it's become easier for places and people to interact this is due to advancements in technology and communication this is known as time space impression today it takes less time for a person product or idea to go from one place to another which gives the illusion that places are closer together the impact of distance Decay is now less than it once was so we can see the impact technology has had on the flow of people goods and ideas between different places but we also need to talk about places themselves and how we can see spatial Concepts in a particular place when talking about spatial Association what we are really trying to understand is how things are arranged within a space now just to make sure we're all on the same page when geographers are talking about space they're referring to the physical gaps between different objects in an area geographers seek to understand how different places are connected what makes a place unique how do people and places interact with one another and how do they influence each other one way they do this is by looking at the spatial distribution of a place which is the density concentration and patterns of an area for example we could look at housing our homes clustered together with little space between them are they dispersed with lots of space between each house or are they set up in a gridlike pattern or perhaps they are in a linear pattern each of these different settlement patterns tell us something different about a particular place or how about a different example think about a classroom in your school here let me help you out I'll set the scene Focus today's the day it is the first day of school and you are so excited to see your friends again and see what your new classes will be like you walk into your classroom and you see all the desks in straight rows the desks are facing the front of the room with space between them what does this make you feel what does this say about your class and what you're going to be a part of for the rest of the school year at the same time that you are arriving at your new class your friend walks into their new classroom when they walk into their new classroom though they notice that the desks are all in pods and there's little to no space between the desk the desks are grouped together in groups of four to five and are not facing the front of the room what does this spatial layout of these two classrooms say about the two classes and the two places well we can see that the pattern of the desks in the classroom can tell us a lot about how the space will be used for the classroom with the desks and rows you probably thought of lectures note taking or tests and quizzes you may have thought that the class will be challenging or will be quieter with less time for talking with other students for the classroom with the desks and pods you probably thought about discussion Hands-On activities group work and less lecture we can see that just by observing the patterns and spatial layout of a place we can gain insight into the purpose of a place and better understand how that place will be used so the next time you're out in public or at school look for patterns look at how items are arranged within a space try to see what the spatial layout of a place says about an area try to see how that influences the flow of people goods and ideas you'll be amazed at what you can tell about a place just by observing it now when talking about a place remember we're talking about physical and human characteristics both of these characteristics make up a place and help create a sense of place when thinking about physical characteristics think of rivers mountains vegetation or the climate when thinking about human characteristics you want to try and think of religion language population and demographic data in general physical and human characteristics together create a sense of place for a location a sense of place is a strong feeling or perception that people have for a place for example when you return home from a long vacation think of that feeling you have when you first enter your hometown now sometimes a place will not invoke a strong feeling from people which would mean that the place is placelessness which happens to places when they lose their uniqueness when talking about place you might also hear the term sight and situation when thinking about sight factors think about the climate the natural resources or the absolute location of a place these are factors that are located where the place is we're thinking about situation factors think about rivers roads things that connect different places together or the relative location these are factors that describe a place in terms of its relation to the surrounding places now I mentioned absolute and relative location remember absolute location is a characteristic of a place that never changes for example the longitude and latitude coordinates of the place think GPS you can pinpoint the location and that spot won't change relative location on the other hand is the relationship a place has with the surrounding area for example if you're trying to give your friend directions to where you are you'll probably use the different landmarks that are located around you to describe your location just to make sure this is making sense let's go over one more example say I was at the Golden Temple in India which is one of the most spiritual places for the seek religion I could describe my location with the absolute location by giving you the longitude and latitude coordinates of the temple or I could use relative location and say I'm outside the temple near the Central Bank of India and the local hardware store and just like that another topic review video is done now you know the drill by now geographers answer the review questions on the screen and check your answers down in the comment section below and if you found value in this video consider subscribing and don't forget to check out my ultimate review packet if you need a little extra help getting that a in your class and a five on the national exam as always I'm Mr sin thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time online