Chapter 1 Introducing Physical Geography

Prologue – Introducing Physical Geography

What is geography? – from the Association of American Geographers. This brief explanation outlines what geography is all about.

Careers in Geography – from the Association of American Geographers. As you now know a little about geography, you can look at this page to find out about the many careers open to geography graduates.

Geography and Geoscience Career Information – Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. This page provides a lot of useful links to help you find jobs and internships associated with geography.

The Geographer’s Craft. This web site, maintained at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the result of a long-standing project which began as an on-line course with particular emphasis on Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Internet Resources on Geography and Geology– Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. This site with many links on all topics in geography was awarded “Top Site” by the Education Index.

The Virtual Geography Department – This web site, maintained at the University of Colorado at Boulder provides many links on all topics in geography

Virtual Vacationland – a virtual tour of on-line resources for Earth Science education and is maintained by the Bigelow Lab for Ocean sciences.

Geography at About.com. This extensive site covers many aspects of geography and also pinpoint sites most relevant to current news events.

National Geographic. Although most people know about the National Geographic magazine, this site reveals that there is a lot more to the National Geographic Society including travel information, television productions and the Xpedition Hall.

Windows to the Universe. This site covers the Earth and Space sciences and even covers mythical and cultural perceptions of the Earth and the planets.

World Wide Web Virtual Library – Geography. This site has some good general links on geography as well as links about countries and educational institutions.

Roadmaps: A Guide to Learning Systems Dynamics

Data Powers of Ten is a useful reference to translate orders of magnitude of computer capacity and what they mean. For example, did you know that 1 megabyte is the equivalent of a short novel?

A Dictionary of Units provides a summary of units of measurement and conversion such as meters, watts and Celsius

Niel Brandt’s Timelines and Scales of Measurement Page provides extensive lists on the chronology of the Earth and the history of science.

The Magnitude of Physics – an amazing of magnitudes from “A” for Absolute Zero to “Y” for year. For example, how much iron is there in seawater, or to compare the average velocity of a snail with a glacier (the snail is faster!).

Orders of Magnitude – how everything compares to everything else. This is a useful graphical representation on the relative size of everything from a galaxy to a raindrop.

Scaling the Universe to your Desktop – provides you with examples of everyday objects and shows how you can use them to envisage the size of phenomena.

The International Society for Systems Science Primer Project - an introduction to systems science.