the human brain processes an insane amount of information every day in order to process all that information the brain uses heuristics which are mental shortcuts and schemas to help organize all of the different information it takes in by using shortcuts and organizing information by Common characteristics it allows us as individuals to quickly process information access the information in a timely manner and also allows us to have a common understanding of certain topics when talking to others in geography we look for different patterns and characteristics of places when we notice areas that are defined by one or more unique characteristics or certain patterns of activity we call them region using regions allows us to reference multiple places at once without having to list every place inside the region we use regions in a variety of different ways if we look at the global scale we can see the different world regions that we use to reference countries around the world we can look at the national scale and look at individual countries for example if you're talking about the United States of America you do not have to list every single state of the United States to talk about the country you can just say the United States of America and people understand you're talking about all 50 states the 50 states are linked together politically and economically and culturally as one single state or if we change our scale and look at regions inside a country we can see that the United States is broken up into different regions that are based on the different geographic features the location and cultures of each part of the country if we change our scale to the local scale we can see that regions exist within a state such as Texas which can be broken down into different congressional districts when Regional analysis is used on different scales it allows us to not only quickly process different information but also helps us observe and analyze different spatial patterns that may be present in a region or place so in talking about regions we can see that they can be broken up into formal regions also known as uniform regions functional regions also known as nodal regions and perceptual regions which are also known as vernacular region a formal region is a geographic area with common attributes and is traditionally defined by economic political social or environmental characteristics formal regions are not up for debate these regions are often homogeneous they have pretty set boundaries and the common characteristics that define them are clearly visible which makes these regions normally pretty easy to identify for example we could look at a physical formal region like the Himalaya it is not up for debate where the mountain range is we look at a political formal region and look at the different political states that make up the continent of Africa where we can see set political boundaries that form the different states or we could look at an economic region like the Eurozone which has a common current countries that are part of the Eurozone have similar Economic Policy creating common economic characteristics throughout the region the next type of region is a functional region which is a geographic area organized around a node or center point it's often based around a specific economic activity travel or perhaps communication for example right now you're watching the this YouTube video which means that you have power the electricity that you use to charge your phone laptop or run your computer comes from a power plant that provides electricity for a set region if you were to leave that region you could still get power but it would come from a different Power Plant same thing goes for actually the rest of your utility such as water and natural gas we can also see functional regions created by restaurants Jimmy John's Erberts and Gerberts or your local pizza place all deliver food to a certain number of homes that are near their store each store has its own functional region and as long as you live in the region you can get your food delivered but if you live outside the region you'll have to order from a different store or we could look at public transportation such as Subways bus routes airports or ports which are all great examples of functional regions each of these different Transportation methods have access points that people go to in order to use the different services such as a bus stop or a train stop if you're far away from one of those access points odds are you'll use a different access point to use the service now I do want to point point out that depending on the service the range of the region will differ for example you'll find in a city a lot more bus stops than you will find airports individuals are willing to travel greater distances for an airport so the functional region will be a lot larger but people are not willing to travel far for a bus stop so the functional region is small we'll go more into why this is later in unit six and seven the last type of region we have is a perceptual region which is a geographic area that has no perfect definition it exists only because of people's beliefs feelings and attitudes of the region these regions are often in a person's mind which makes it hard to have set boundaries that are set in stone for example what countries are in the Middle East would you put parts of Northern Africa into the Middle East or just countries that are located on the Arabian Peninsula if you were to ask your classmates in your class I bet you would find some similar answer but I also would bet that everyone would have a different idea of which countries are part of the Middle East or another example is Kansas a northern state or a Southern state well depending on where you're located or live in the United States your answer might change if you're from Florida or Texas you might say that Kansas is a Northern State but for someone like me who's from Minnesota Kansas definitely feels more like a Southern state when talking about regions a general rule of thumb is whenever directions are part of a region it's going to be a perceptual region we are using cardinal directions we are using relative location and or Direction which will change based on your location also remember that when talking about regions it's possible that regions may change over time especially with perceptual regions we might also see regions overlap with one another or become contestants whenever you are trying to look at a region always make sure that you look at all of the information that's being presented to you depending on the scale or context of the information the region may be different and just like that the last topic review video of unit one is done now before you go and take your unit test or that National exam in may make sure you watch my unit one summary video which summarizes all the major concepts of unit one it'll definitely help you get an A in your class and a five on that National exam but before you do that don't forget check your answers to the questions screen in the comments section down below as always I'm Mr sin thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time online