formal functional and perceptual regions you have to know each of these for AP Human Geography which clicked on this video precisely because you do not know what in the fresh heck these things mean dry off your anxiety sweats Because by the end of this video you're going to know all about them so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked well let's get to it so let's start as is proper with a definition on the most basic level a region is a geographical unit which shares some unifying principle that unifying principle can be cultural like a shared language or economic like a treaty that binds States together into an economic unit or a pattern or activity like farming or dang near anything else that helps bind people together and there are two very important things to remember about regions first it is geographers who Define regions and what I mean is Regions only exist in the brains of geographers who are studying various phenomena like we often talk about sub-Saharan Africa as a region which is distinct from North Africa and it's true that this giant hunking desert here is a physical feature that might help explain why these two regions exist well it's not like you're going to hop on a camel and go trekking through the Sahara and find a sign that says that now leaving sub-Saharan Africa no based on the various shared characters of the people who live down here geographers Define this region and that helps them compare it to other regions okay the second thing to remember is that regions don't come in standard sizes they can be Giant and cross-national boundaries like Asia for example or they can occur on a smaller scale within a nation like here in the United States we have the South and the Northeast but the thing to remember is that no matter how big these regions are they exist because of some shared characteristic among the people who live there okay easy enough so let's talk about the three main types of regions you need to know first is formal regions and just to annoy you these are sometimes called uniform regions or homogeneous Regions they're all the same thing so you know just don't get confused anyway a formal region is a geographical area that is linked by common traits like language or religion or economic Prosperity or some geographical feature etc for example geographers could Define a formal region based on people who are Buddhists which would include East Asia and Southeast Asia or a geographical feature could provide the basis for defining a region like the Everglades in Florida and here they might want to study the spatial effects of pollution or how easy it is to get your leg chomped off by a giant alligator here real easy over here relatively Chomp free but that just a simple version of formal regions often geographers use more than one cultural trait to define a region like the overlap of language and religion and economics Etc but the point is formal regions tend to have pretty clear boundaries which separate them from other places and I'll talk about why those boundaries aren't entirely clear in just a moment so put that in your pocket and we'll get back to it but now let's look at the second kind of region you need to know namely functional regions also known by its nastier name nodal regions again same thing don't get confused basically a functional region is organized not based on shared traits but on a shared function and what sets this kind of region apart is Some central location or node around which that shared activity is carried out and these kinds of regions also tend to have pretty clear borders you know not always now a simple example of a functional region would be a pizza delivery restaurant I'm here in Atlanta and I can't call a Papa John's in Nashville and expect them to deliver me a pizza why because I live outside of their functional region which is defined by how far delivery people are willing to drive so that means I got to find the nodal Papa John's in the functional region where I live if I'm hoping to crush a stuffed crust Philly Cheesesteak pizza and shave a couple years off my life expectancy worth it I had another example of a functional region would be the central business district of a major city which serves as the functional node for people all across the metropolitan area like all the business takes place here and then people drive from the outskirts of the city and from all the suburbs to come to work now to further confuse you formal and functional regions can overlap but they're often spatially distinct I must consider Iraq as an example Iraq is a functional region with the capital city of Baghdad serving as the political and economic note but culturally Iraq can be roughly divided into three distinct formal regions based on ethnicity and religion okay now the third kind of region you need to know is called a perceptual region or you might hear it called a vernacular region these are regions defined by people's shared beliefs and feelings about themselves and the borders here are pretty vague like Southerners tend to think of themselves as hospitable and more religious than folks in other regions like say you know the Northeast and in a lot of ways that's true like if someone from Boston moves to North Alabama for example they might be shocked to find people holding doors open for them or complete strangers asking how their day was the point is perceptual or vernacular regions exist in the minds of those who live there that means it's often impossible to draw a hard line where a perceptual region ends and another begins okay now let's finish up by talking about the boundaries of regions as I said earlier formal and functional regions tend to have distinct boundaries while perceptual regions tend to have vague boundaries but even with formal and functional regions boundaries are often transitional which means there isn't a hard line separating them and that further means that these boundaries are sometimes the subject of disputes and when they are we call them contested boundaries for example prior to 2011 the African country of Sudan was one country and served as a functional region but Sudan also contained two distinct formal regions based on religion folks in the north were primarily Muslim while folks in the South were primarily Christian but in 2011 turmoil erupted and Sudan split into two different countries Sudan and South Sudan so now each country serves as a distinct functional region based on economic and political functions and distinct formal regions based on religion Okay click here to keep watching my other unit 1 videos and click here to grab my heimler review guide for AP Human Geography which has everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your exam in May