this is the world in which we all call home large urban areas spread across the globe populations rise and fall while religions languages and cultures spread the never-changing climate and globalization continue to transform supply lines economies governments and the lives of Everyday People this is the world we live in and this is AP Human Geography but I'm already getting ahead of myself after all this is just an introduction video to start let's take another look at our world now you probably do not view the world as a globe that often a globe is just not the most practical way to view the world in your daily life it does not help you with directions you cannot look at all the individual countries at once and it clearly doesn't show boundaries within a country instead of using a globe we use map projection you probably have seen a map like this at some point in your life maybe it was online when you were trying to get directions to a friend's house or it was in your classroom at your school this is the Mercator map projection you can tell because of the right angles the focus on longitude and latitude and also the shape of the map this map is great for displaying accurate Direction which is one of the reasons why it was used for Naval Expedition but did you know that this map is wrong wait what how can the map be wrong while this map is accurate at showing Direction it does does have significant Distortion in the size and location of the landmass for example look at Africa and Greenland on this map Africa appears to be much smaller than Greenland when in reality it is the exact opposite in fact Africa is so large that you could fit almost all of the United States Italy Germany France the Netherlands Belgium Spain Portugal almost all of Eastern Europe India China Japan and the United Kingdom all inside Africa but you would never know that if you just went off the Mercator map if we were to put all these circles around the globe and then project them onto the Mercator map projection we would get an image that looks like this notice how the circles still keep their shape but the size varies depending on the location of the circle and it isn't just this map that has some pretty major flaws in fact every map you have ever looked at has Distortion whenever we try to view the globe on a flat surface we can see the Distortion impacts either the direction the shape the area distance or some sometimes all of them at once okay so if the Mercator map projection is flawed then what map projection should we use well we could use the good homilcene projection which is an interrupted map this map projection is an equal area projection it excels at showing the true size and shape of the earth's land masses but has Distortion with distance and Distortion near the edges of the map this map is also not that helpful for direction since it is an interrupted map another interrupted map that we could use is the Fuller map projection this projection shows land masses without an eruption and maintains accurate size and shape but it does not use the cardinal directions which makes it kind of difficult for people to read plus it still struggles with the Distortion especially as you get farther away from the center point if we go back to map projections that are uninterrupted we could look at the Robinson projection this map projection puts the majority of the Distortion at the pole and it maintains the true size and shape of the landmass we could also look at the Winkle triple projection which is similar to the Robinson projection this projection is rounder in shape and also larger this map projection is similar to the Robinson in that it spreads Distortion out throughout the entire map but tries to concentrate as much of the Distortion as possible at the pole there's also the gaul's Peter projection which is one of the most accurate map projections that's showing the true size of land masses but we can see immediately that it has a significant amount of distortion in the shape of the land masses and also Direction oftentimes people will compare the gaul's Peter projection with the Mercator map projection here you can easily see the difference in the size location and shape of the land masses honestly we could go on and on with map projections there are hundreds of different map projections that all depict the globe in a different way each map projection is better suited for different purposes and each projection is impacted by Distortion in different ways now people use maps for a variety of different reasons but regardless of the use we can generally categorize Maps into two main categories reference maps and also thematic Maps reference maps are informational Maps these Maps would be used to find the boundaries of a place look at different geographic features or be able to be used to get directions from point A to point B for example if you go to Disney World you'll probably use a reference map to move around the park or if you're going to be going on a hike with friends you'll use a topographic map to understand how the elevation will change on your height or let's say you're ready for some dinner and you're trying to get to the nearest Chipotle you'll want to use a reference map for direction or maybe you want to use a reference map to better understand the public transportation in an area all of these are examples of reference map Now when using reference Maps you'll often be looking at absolute and relative distance which can sometimes be confused with absolute and relative location or Direction many students mix these terms up so it's important to remember the difference between them Absolute direction is the exact Direction you are heading for example if you were traveling east of your current location your compass will show 90 degrees relative direction is when you use the surrounding area for direction for example I'm north of you right now notice the direction depends on the current situation it's not precise and could change absolute distance is the exact distance between two places usually measured in miles or kilometers for example Chipotle is 2.5 miles away from the Xcel Energy Center relative distance is an approximate measurement between two places usually talked about in time or direction for example Chipotle is about six minutes away from the XL Energy Center absolute location is the exact spot where something is located for example the GPS coordinates of a plate here you are using longitude and latitude lastly relative location is a description of a location using the surrounding geographic feature for example my house is near the water tower and the fire station thematic maps on the other hand display spatial patterns of places and use quantitative data to display specific topics these maps present the reader with specific information that I can tell a story about an area chloropleth maps display data by using different colors these maps are great at showing quantity and density but use generalizations to display the information for example when looking at this chloroplus map we can see the average life expectancy for each country around the world notice that each color represents a different average life expectancy the darker the color the longer people in the country are living one problem with this map is it's using generalizations to display the data for example take the United States when looking at this map we can see that the average life expectancy is around 82 years old but if we change the scale the map we can see that each state in the United States has different average life expectancy with some of the states having an average life expectancy well below the national average so here we can see the scale of the map was impacting our data and what we could perceive small scale Maps such as our global map have to use more generalities since they're showing more of the Earth's surface while large-scale Maps such as a map of a local community can use specific data and avoid generalities in the data since it's showing less of the Earth's surface now let's say we want to be a little bit more specific with where the data on our thematic map is being displayed so we don't want to use a chloropleth map well we could use a DOT density map these Maps show data with points at the place the data is occurring this allows us to see spatial distribution but can become confusing if the data is clustered together in a specific area if data objects items people or information are close together it means there's little space between them so everything is packed together if it is dispersed it means it's spread out over a geographic area and there's more space between the items or information for example if we look at the racial dot map which uses information from the United States census we can see where people are living in the United States based on their rate each dot is one person notice though that in larger cities with a higher density the dots seem to blend together as one since people are living so close together making it difficult to clearly see each dot another map that is similar to The Dot density map is a graduated symbol map these Maps use shapes items or symbols to show the location and amount of data these maps are often really visual but can become confusing due to the overlapping information for example if we look at the 2016 United States presidential election we can see this graduated symbol map displays each State's voting breakdown and the amount of people that voted in each state Ice Line Maps use lines to connect different areas that have similar or equal amounts of information oftentimes you'll see these Maps as weather maps but these Maps can be difficult for people to read partogram maps show data in a dynamic way with the greatest value represented by the largest area these maps are very Visual and can clearly show differences between different places but can sometimes be confusing due to the amount of distortion of the shape and size of places as you can see here we're looking at this cartogram showing organic agriculture notice how some countries are almost non-existent on this map While others seem to dominate the entire map here the larger the country tree the more organic agriculture is being practiced and the smaller the country the less lastly there's a flow line map these Maps show the movement of different Goods people animals services or ideas between different places as we can see here when looking at the top 15 United States trade Partners from 2011. here we can see the amount of trade is illustrated by the size of the arrow and the direction of the trade is color coded to show both exports and import all right you did it one topic review video down now in order to help make sure you truly understand all the different information in this video take some time and answer the different questions on the screen right now when you're ready to check your answers go down to the comment section down below also when you're down there don't forget to check out my ultimate review packet and subscribe the ultimate review packet has resources for every unit of AP Human Geography it is a great resource and it'll definitely help you get an A in your class and a five on the national exam well that's all the time we have for today thank you so much for watching I'm Mr sin and I'll see you next time on online