science

Location

Location is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Location rather than just read about it. In short: In geography, location or place is used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface. The term location generally implies a higher degree of certainty than place, the latter often indicating an entity with an ambiguous boundary, relying more on human or social attributes of place identity and sense of place than on geometry.

Key takeaways

Location belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Location to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Location from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In geography, location or place is used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface. The term location generally implies a higher degree of certainty than place, the latter often indicating an entity with an ambiguous boundary, relying more on human or social attributes of place identity and sense of place than on geometry. A populated place is called a settlement.

Types

Locality A locality, settlement, or populated place is likely to have a well-defined name but a boundary that is not well defined, but rather varies by context. London, for instance, has a legal boundary, but this is unlikely to completely match with general usage. An area within a town, such as Covent Garden in London, also almost always has some ambiguity as to its extent. In geography, location is considered to be more precise than "place".

Relative location A relative location, or situation, is described as a displacement from another site.

Absolute location

An absolute location can be designated using a specific pairing of latitude and longitude in a Cartesian coordinate grid (for example, a spherical coordinate system or an ellipsoid-based system such as the World Geodetic System) or similar methods. For example, the position of New York City in the United States can be expressed using the coordinate system as the location 40.7128°N (latitude), 74.0060°W ( Absolute locations are also relative locations, since even absolute locations are expressed relative to something else. For example, longitude is the number of degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian, a line arbitrarily chosen to pass through Greenwich, England. Similarly, latitude is the number of degrees north or south of the equator. Because latitude and longitude are expressed relative to these lines, a position expressed in latitude and longitude is also a relative location.

See also Geocode – Code that represents a geographic entity (location or object) Geographical feature – Discrete phenomenon that exists at a location on Earth Geographic coordinate system – System to specify locations on Earth Geopositioning – Determination of the geographic position of an object Global Positioning System (GPS) – American satellite-based radio navigation service Locale (geographic) Location, Location, Location Location Location Location Australia

References

External links "Location". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. OCLC 1032680871.

Illustrations

Location: Gridlines on the Mercator projection — Gridlines on the Mercator projection

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Location

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Location claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Location before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Location ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Location

In research: Location appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Location in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Location is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cartography, Places, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Location outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Location in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Location means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Location out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Location in simple terms?

Why does Location matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Location?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Location.