Explain the difference between GIS and GPS. What will be an ...

[Redwolflake15]

Explain the difference between GIS and GPS.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is the difference between Environmental Determinism and Possibilism?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[yuyiding]

Answer to Question 1

Answer: A Geographic Information System is a computer-based system that not only captures and stores information, but also is able to execute queries, do analysis, and display geographic data. Geographic Information Systems can be used to produce maps that are more accurate and attractive than those drawn by hand. With GIS, the position of any object on Earth can be measured and recorded with mathematical precision and then stored in a computer. A map can be created by asking the computer to retrieve a number of stored objects and combine them to form an image, with each information type stored as a layer.

A GPS, or Global Positioning System is a system that accurately determines the precise position of something on Earth. The GPS system in use in the United States includes two dozen satellites placed in predetermined orbits, a series of tracking stations to monitor and control the satellites, and receivers that compute position, velocity, and time from the satellite signals.

Both GIS and GPS are high-tech systems that provide excellent tools for information gathering and manipulation. But the two are very different. GPS is used to locate places on Earth whereas GIS is used to organize information to make sense of it.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: Environmental determinism holds that the physical environment causes social development. The proponents of this theory drew a direct link, for example, between the temperate climate of Northwestern Europe and human efficiency (better health conditions, lower death rates, higher living standards, etc.

Modern geographers have largely rejected environmental determinism in favor of possibilism to explain the relationship between human activities and the physical environment. According to possibilism the physical environment may place some limits on human actions, but ultimately, people have the ability to adjust to their environment. People can choose a course of action from many alternatives in the physical environment. For example, people learn that different crops thrive in different climates; wheat is more likely than rice to be grown successfully in colder climates. Thus, under geography's possibilism approach, people choose the crops they grow in part by considering their environment.