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Take Me Out To The Ball Game: Geography and Central Place Theory

Take Me Out to the Ball Game | Do Geography Lab Do Geography Lab · Urban Systems Take Me Out to the Ball Game Major League Baseball may eventually grow from 30 clubs to 32. Where should the next two teams go? Build a market, draw its territory, and discover why the neat geometry of central-place theory collides with the unruly geography of actual cities. EXPANSION COMMITTEE 30 clubs now 32 possible future YOUR PICKS · 0 /2 1. Find the threshold 2. Draw the market 3. Break the model 4. Award the teams Central-place theory asks How large a market is needed to support a high-order function? The geographical trap A city’s population is not the same thing as its market. 01 Threshold How many people does a team need? Set three assumptions. The model calculates the minimum market needed to sustain your attendance target. Annual attendance target 2.4 million Games attended per fan 2.4 per year Residents likely t...
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Newtons Migration Model Interactive

Newton's First Law of Migration — Do Geography Lab Do Geography Lab · Migration Newton's First Law of Migration Can population and distance predict who moves to Minnesota? Build the model, confront the evidence, and investigate the places where human geography refuses to behave like physics. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Often attributed to Einstein. Migration models live on that dangerous boundary. 1. Make a prediction 2. Test it 3. Map the failure 4. Repair the model The wager Large states have more potential movers. Nearby states impose less cost, risk, and friction. Therefore migration should rise with population and fall with distance. The test A useful model is not one that never fails. It is one whose failures teach us what the model left out. 01 Make a gravity-model prediction The constant k is calibrated so total predicted migration equals the total of the published state flows. You decide how strongly distance should deter...
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India: 1.4 Billion and Still Counting?

1.4 Billion—and Still Counting? | Demographic Momentum Lab Do Geography Lab · Population 1.4 Billion— and Still Counting? India’s fertility has fallen dramatically. Its population can nevertheless continue growing. The missing variable is not hidden in the future; it is alive in the age structure of the present. 1.46B Approximate 2025 population in the UN’s medium projection. Fertility: roughly 1.9 births per woman. 1. Read the Pyramid 2. Run the Future 3. Isolate Momentum 4. Explain It The demographic puzzle Replacement-level fertility is often simplified to about 2.1 births per woman. India is now near or below that level, but a population does not stop like a faucet. Millions of people already born are moving into the years when families are formed. Make a prediction If fertility fell immediately to 1.7 , would India’s population begin shrinking at once? Hold your answer until you run the experiment. 01 Read the population already in motion This simplified 2025 age s...
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True Maps and False Impressions Geography Interactive

True Maps, False Impressions — Interactive Geography Lab Do Geography Lab • Cartography True Maps, False Impressions Every map leaves something out. The question is not whether a map distorts reality, but what it distorts, why, and with what consequences. A map can be factually correct and still guide the eye toward a deeply misleading conclusion. 1. Stretch the World 2. Remap One Dataset 3. Read the Argument Your task Change the cartographer’s decisions. Watch what becomes prominent, what disappears, and which perfectly defensible map you would choose for a particular question. One rule Do not ask, “Is this map true?” Ask, “True for what purpose—and liable to create what false impression?” 01 Stretch the world The Mercator projection preserves local direction and shape, which made it invaluable to navigators. Its area distortion, however, grows rapidly toward the poles. Move an identical territory north 0° latitude Mercator makes it appear 1.00× its equatorial are...
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