GEOG101: Physical Geography

Lecture 02: Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Topics
1. Physical Geography: Elements and Processes
2. Earth Systems Science: Concepts and Theory
3. Earth as a Planet: General Information
4. Earth as a Planet: Spherical Planet
5. Expression of Earth: Latitude, Longitude and Time

Physical Geography: Elements and Processes
• Physical Geography focuses on the spatial analysis of all the physical elements and processes that make up the environment.
• Take a minute to think about what physical elements and processes you can find around your living environments
• Like in any physical science descipline, Energy and matter are the most important subjects

Earth Systems Science: Concepts and Theory
• Systems theory: organizes complex relationships into simple components
• Think about some examples for systems, defining the inputs and outputs of each system and determine if it's an open or closed systems
• The definition of a syetem very often depends on the purposes of your study. Give an example of systems that have the hierarchy. For examples, Solar System --> Earth system --> Carbon system, etc. What is the most important thing when you define a system?
• System feedback: A system's reaction/justification in response to changes of components within the system
• Understand: positive feedback, negative feedback, and threshold . Give an example for each of them
• System Equilibrium: understand these terms: Steady-state equilibrium, Dynamic equilibrium, Metastable equilibrium, Dynamic Metastable equilibrium. Can you give an example for each of them?
• Understand the "blackbox model" and give an example

Earth as a Planet: General Information
• Terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. They are :
         Small
         Dense (4 - 5.5 g/cm3)
         Rocky + Metals
• Jovian planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. They are:
         Large
         Low density (0.7 - 1.5 g/cm3)
         Gaseous
• Check the textbook, website, or your high-school textbooks, make sure you know the following things about the earth: Self rotation, Rotation around the sun, Days and nights, Seasons and years

Earth as a Planet: Spherical Planet
• Understand what the 'Geoid' is and what it's used for
• What is a 'Geoidal bulge'?

Expression of Earth: Latitude, Longitude and Time
• What does a '49th parallel' mean?
• There is only one parallel that is a 'Great circle', what latitude is that great circle?
• What's the latitudes for the 'subtropical zone'?
• Longitude lines are called meridians--not parallels. What is the 'Prime meridian'? Which place does this meridian come across?
• Are all the meridians great circles?
• What does the 'GMT' time means?
• We know that New York and Las Vegas have time difference for 3 hours. From this, how many degrees in longitude difference between NY and Las Vegas?
• Las Vegas is at 115 degree West, and New Deli of India is at 77 degree East. When Las Vegas is at 7:00 am (GMT), what time (GMT) should be in New Deli?