What is geography? ?

Question

How would you respond to someone asking you, "I thought geography was about memorizing capitals - is there more to it than that?" what is geography?

Answer 1

Geography is "the study of the Earth and all that is in it."

Answer 2

Its way more than mapping and more than just the earth.  Pete's answer is as good as you will get.  Rincewind though said poorly is correct too.

Answer 3

Well, the Greek term "Geo" means "Earth" and "Graphy" means "the study of" so Geography is the study of the Earth.

Answer 4

Stop being so middle ages in your thinking.  Geography occurs off of earth as well, so anyone stating that its just earth is wrong.

Hello...the geography of the moon anybody?

And you say you have degrees.

Geography is the study of the social and physical landscapes.

Answer 5

The simplist response to such a question would be one that touches on all facets of the discipline, and is best described by saying

"Geography is the study of people, space, place and time and the interactions between the four".

Why you ask does that cover all of geography?  it converes political geography, physical geography, economic geography and human geography as well as how they all interrelate.

Answer 6

geography is the study of the climate and all its functions. not just maps. it is a study of the earth, environment. it covers a lot of topics, more than some people realise. there you go that is pretty much what geography is. :D

Answer 7

Geography (from Greek γεωγραφία - geografia) is the study of the earth and its features, inhabitants, and phenomena.[1] A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth".  

Answer 8

Geography (from Greek γεωγραφία - geografia) is the study of the earth and its features, inhabitants, and phenomena.[1] A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes (276-194 B.C.). Four historical traditions in geographical research are the spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena (geography as a study of distribution), area studies (places and regions), study of man-land relationship, and research in earth sciences.[2] Nonetheless, modern geography is an all-encompassing discipline that foremost seeks to understand the world and all of its human and natural complexities-- not merely where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be. As "the bridge between the human and physical sciences," geography is divided into two main branches - human geography and physical geography.

Traditionally, geographers have been viewed the same way as cartographers and people who study place names and numbers. Although many geographers are trained in toponymy and cartology, this is not their main preoccupation. Geographers study the spatial and temporal distribution of phenomena, processes and feature as well as the interaction of humans and their environment.[5] As space and place affect a variety of topics such as economics, health, climate, plants and animals, geography is highly interdisciplinary.

Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main sub fields: human geography and physical geography. The former focuses largely on the built environment and how space is created, viewed and managed by humans as well as the influence humans have on the space they occupy. The latter examines the natural environment and how the climate, vegetation & life, soil, water, and landforms are produced and interact.[7] As a result of the two subfields using different approaches a third field has emerged, which is environmental geography. Environmental geography combines physical and human geography and looks at the interactions between the environment and humans.

Answer 9

the study of the locations and names of places on the globe

Answer 10

Geography is the study of the earth's surface

Answer 11

a map of the earth in detail