Unit 1 · Introduction to Geography · Lesson 1.4 Five Themes · one idea at a time
We'll take this one idea at a time
Location: Where Is It?
Location answers Where is it? You already used the global grid in 1.3.2. This study splits location into two tools: absolute (the exact spot) and relative (compared with another place). Both show up in jobs, and both help you read a real migration.
Tell absolute location from relative location, and name what pinpoints absolute location.
Plot the four study-sheet cities, and name the four indicators used for relative location.
Explain how surveyors and meteorologists use location, and what location shows about the 1890 Norwegian migration.
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A running start
1.3.2 taught latitude and longitude. This study uses that grid as one kind of location, then adds a second kind.
Not sure about the basics underneath this lesson?
Absolute location is a pin on the planet: an address, or 35° S, 140° E. Relative location is a set of clues: past the water tower, ten minutes north, across the river.
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Absolute works from anywhere
A street address or lat/long. The Petersons' house number.
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Relative needs a shared starting point
Landmarks, time, direction, distance. The rose-bush directions.
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Jobs use both
Surveyors turn relative measurements into new absolute points. Meteorologists need direction and time.
Quick check — answer out loud before you peek
Is 'north of the river' absolute or relative?
Relative. You have to know which river. An absolute version would be a coordinate or an address.
When this makes sense, hide it and go back to the lesson.
You can skip this and come back. Next goes into the lesson.
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Two ways to give directions
Someone stops you and needs to find the Petersons. If you know the house, how you answer depends on what they already know.
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Two ways to give directions
You could give the street address: 6525 28th Street. That is absolute location: the exact spot on the planet. It works no matter where the person is starting.
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Two ways to give directions
Or you could use landmarks: go to that stop sign, turn left, first right, fifth house on the left, the green one with the rose bushes. That is relative location: one place defined in terms of other known places. Those directions fail if the person is coming from a different starting point.
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Two ways to give directions
Location is the theme that answers 'Where is it?' Using both kinds is an essential geographic skill. The lesson's line: we'd be lost without it.
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Absolute = exact spot, works from anywhere. Relative = compared with a known place, only works if you share that reference.
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Absolute location and the grid
Absolute location is useful no matter where you are. Two common ways to pinpoint it: a street address, and the global grid of latitude and longitude. The grid is the broader, more universal method. You already learned it in 1.3.2. This page is a review.
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Absolute location and the grid
The global grid is like an x-y axis. The origin, where both coordinates are zero, is the intersection of the equator and the prime meridian. Every position is north or south, and east or west, of that crossing.
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Absolute location and the grid
Latitude lines have degrees plus N or S. Longitude lines have degrees plus E or W. 30° N, 90° W is the southern coast of Louisiana. On a closer map of Louisiana, that same pair is New Orleans. Curved meridians on a projection do not change the numbers. 30° N, 90° W is still that place.
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Absolute location and the grid
Study sheet Q2: what is used to pinpoint absolute location? A street address, or latitude and longitude (the global grid).
The same grid as 1.3.2. Origin at equator × prime meridian. Latitude first, then longitude.
Click a diagram to open it bigger.
Write latitude first (N or S), then longitude (E or W). The course's check point is still 30° N, 90° W = New Orleans.
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Four cities to plot
The study sheet asks you to mark four cities. Latitude first, then longitude.
Lesson 1.4.1 p2 + study sheet Q32 of 6 in this idea
Four cities to plot
Adelaide: 35° S, 140° E. Southern Australia, south of the equator, well east of the prime meridian.
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Four cities to plot
Mumbai: 20° N, 72° E. Western India, north of the equator, east of the prime meridian.
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Four cities to plot
Moscow: 55° N, 37° E. Far north in Europe, a little east of the prime meridian.
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Four cities to plot
Gaborone: 25° S, 25° E. Southern Africa (Botswana), south of the equator, east of the prime meridian.
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Four cities to plot
Apex has you start the plot with Adelaide. Same rule on a curved map as on a rectangle: find the latitude line, find the longitude line, the city sits at the crossing.
The four study-sheet cities on the global grid. Copy these dots onto your notebook map.
Click a diagram to open it bigger.
If two cities blur, sort by hemisphere first. Adelaide and Gaborone are south. Mumbai and Moscow are north. Then look at how far east.
Not sure about this bit?
Latitude first, then longitude. South is below the equator.
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South pair
Adelaide 35° S, 140° E (Australia). Gaborone 25° S, 25° E (southern Africa).
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North pair
Mumbai 20° N, 72° E (India). Moscow 55° N, 37° E (Europe, just east of the prime meridian).
Quick check — answer out loud before you peek
Which city is 55° N, 37° E?
Moscow.
When this makes sense, hide it and go back to the lesson.
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Four ways to say relative location
Absolute location is powerful, but unless you have a good world map or a GPS device, it is not the easiest thing to use. People more often give relative location.
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Four ways to say relative location
Descriptions of relative location use four indicators: landmarks, time, direction, and distance. That is study-sheet question 4. Name the four, then use each one on your hometown.
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Four ways to say relative location
Worked pattern (swap in your own town): • Landmark: across from the high school / past the water tower • Time: about 20 minutes south of the next town • Direction: north of the river, west of the highway • Distance: five miles from the courthouse
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Four ways to say relative location
The Apex blackboard on this page had more examples. Those exact lines were not captured. The four indicators above are the captured list. Use those four, not a fifth you invent.
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Q4 wants the four words: landmarks, time, direction, distance. Then one hometown sentence for each.
Not sure about this bit?
Four words. Then your town.
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The four
Landmarks, time, direction, distance.
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Hometown
One sentence each. Do not skip a word.
Quick check — answer out loud before you peek
Name the four indicators.
Landmarks, time, direction, and distance.
When this makes sense, hide it and go back to the lesson.
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Relative location names places too
Relative location is not only for street directions. It is also how we name and describe places inside a larger area. Compass directions are the usual tool.
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Relative location names places too
Western Europe: the countries on the western side of the continent. You have to know where Europe is first, so the name is relative.
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Relative location names places too
Western Australia: separated from Eastern Australia by a sprawling desert interior. The cultures are very different, and both places are rarely discussed without those relative names.
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Relative location names places too
Other relative names from the page: Upstate New York (the northern part of the state), Central Asia (the middle of the continent), Midtown Manhattan (the center of that city).
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Relative location names places too
Page 5 is a map-navigation exercise that was not captured. The skill it is drilling is the same: move with landmarks, time, direction, and distance.
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If a name has west, upstate, central, or midtown in it, you are looking at relative location used as a label.
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Location on the job
People in all walks of life use spatial thinking at work. Where spatial thinking is involved, both absolute and relative location are tools of the trade. Apex walks two jobs.
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Location on the job
Surveyor. The job is establishing official land and water locations. That work ends up on maps, deeds, leases, government reports, and other legal documents. The surveyor spends the day establishing absolute locations, but needs relative location to get there. In the field: pick reference points that already have known absolute locations. Then measure distances, directions, and angles between those known points and the unknown ones (boundaries, utility poles, hilltops, streams). The relative measurements turn into exact locations for everything in the survey.
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Location on the job
Meteorologist. Sample forecast from the lesson: sunny in the morning, rain moving in from the west around noon, a high-pressure system from the north this evening to clear the rain, and the clear skies the satellite shows in the northwest moving in for the rest of the week. Without directions and times, the forecast collapses to 'rain tomorrow around noon, then clear.' All the useful detail depends on relative location. That is study-sheet question 6.
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Q5 surveyor: known absolute points + relative measurements (distance, direction, angle) = new absolute locations. Q6 meteorologist: direction and time are what make a forecast usable.
Lesson 1.4.1 study sheet Q71 of 3 in this idea
The Norwegian migration, through location
Every study in this lesson applies a geographic skill to the same event. Thousands of Norwegian men and women, mostly farmers, immigrated to North America at the end of the 19th century. A map shows the distribution, by state, of Norwegian-born people in 1890. Question 7: how can location help you make sense of this migration?
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The Norwegian migration, through location
Location's answer: they did not sprinkle evenly across the whole United States. They clustered. The 1890 pattern sits in a band of north-central states next to each other (the Upper Midwest: Minnesota and its neighbors). Absolute location names those states. Relative location notices they are neighbors, not random dots, and that this is farm country more like Norway than a far southern state would be.
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The Norwegian migration, through location
Later studies in Five Themes will reuse this same Norwegian story with place, region, movement, and human-environmental interaction. For this page, stay on location: clustered, named, next to each other.
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Q7 is not 'they moved.' It is what location shows: clustering in a few neighboring states, not an even spread.
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Your geographer's notebook
Seven questions. Here are the notes to write.
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Your geographer's notebook
1. Absolute vs relative. Absolute location is the exact spot on the planet (address or lat/long). It works from anywhere. Relative location defines one place in terms of another (landmarks, time, direction, distance). It only works if you know the reference.
Lesson 1.4.1 study sheet3 of 8 in this idea
Your geographer's notebook
2. What pinpoints absolute location? A street address, or the global grid of latitude and longitude.
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Your geographer's notebook
3. Four cities. Adelaide 35° S, 140° E. Mumbai 20° N, 72° E. Moscow 55° N, 37° E. Gaborone 25° S, 25° E. Mark them on the map in this walkthrough.
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Your geographer's notebook
4. Four relative indicators. Landmarks, time, direction, and distance. Then one sentence each for your hometown.
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Your geographer's notebook
5. Surveyors. They establish official land and water locations for deeds and maps. They start from reference points with known absolute locations, then use relative measurements (distance, direction, angle) to give exact locations to boundaries and other features.
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Your geographer's notebook
6. Meteorologists. Relative location (direction and time) is how they tell people where weather is coming from and when it will arrive. Without that, a forecast has no useful detail.
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Your geographer's notebook
7. Norwegian migration, 1890. Location shows clustering, not an even spread: neighboring north-central states. Absolute location names the states. Relative location notices they sit next to each other.
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Q3 is a plot. Q4 needs the four words plus your town. Q7 is clustering.
Not sure about this bit?
Seven notes. Write these.
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Q1–Q2
Absolute = exact spot. Relative = in terms of another place. Pinpoint absolute with address or lat/long.
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Q3–Q4
Four cities on the map. Four indicators plus your hometown.
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Q5–Q7
Surveyor: known absolute + distance/direction/angle. Meteorologist: direction and time. Norwegians: clustered in neighboring north-central states.
Quick check — answer out loud before you peek
What does location show about the 1890 Norwegian map?
Clustering, not an even spread. Neighboring north-central states.
When this makes sense, hide it and go back to the lesson.
That's the lesson
Before you quiz yourself
Check the ones that make sense now. This list is saved in this browser. The other tools (name that term, flashcards, practice quiz) are up top whenever you want them.
Built from Apex 1.4.1 (8 pages) and its study sheet. Page 2 city-plotting interactive, page 3 blackboard Scriptoid, page 5 map-navigation exercise, and page 7 key-term Scriptoid were not captured as screens. City coordinates and the four relative indicators (landmarks, time, direction, distance) come from captured prose. Surveyor and meteorologist notes come from the audio transcript. The 1890 Norwegian map image was not captured; clustering in the Upper Midwest is the standard reading of that census map.
