1. Chapter 11: Key Issue 2
Why Do Industries Have Different Distributions?
1. Define each of the following:
a. Situation factors
b. Site factor
2. What are inputs?
3. Location near inputs: COPPER INDUSTRY
a. What is a “bulk-reducing” industry?
b. Make a brief flowchart to illustrate how copper is an example of this.
c. How does energy play a role in the siting of copper mills?
4. Origin of steel industry… iron industry
a. In what way did iron production benefit from the steam engine?
b. Why did manufacturers during the Industrial Revolution turn to coal instead of using wood?
5. Coal
a. Define coke
b. How is the distribution of steel and iron industry influenced by coal?
6. Location near inputs: STEEL MILLS
The text describes the changing location of steel mills in the U.S. Explain why each location was preferred.
a. Pittsburg, southwestern Pennsylvania
b. Locations around southern shore of Lake Erie
c. Southern Lake Michigan (Gary, Indiana and Chicago)
d. East and West Coasts (Trenton, New Jersey and Los Angeles, California)
e. Current production – Why are the newest steel mills (minimills) beginning to move closer to markets and
away from inputs?
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2. 7. Location near markets
a. What is a “bulk-gaining” industry?
b. Give three examples of this type of industry.
c. Explain the change in distribution for motor vehicle assembly plants in the past three decades. Explain
where and why.
d. In geographic terms, if a company has a product that is made only at one plant, and the critical locational
factor is to minimize the _______ of distributing it to the _________ and ____________ consumers,
then the optimal factory location is in the U.S. ____________ rather than on the East or West Coast.
8. Single-market manufacturers
a. Specialized manufacturers make products that are designed to be sold primarily in a single market.
Describe an example of this phenomenon.
b. What are “just-in-time” parts? Where do these parts manufacturers tend to cluster?
9. Perishable products. List examples of perishable products that must be located near their markets.
10. Give reasons for which each of the following modes of transportation might be selected by a manufacturer
to deliver their products to market.
SHIP
RAIL
TRUCK
AIR
11. What is a break-of-bulk point?
a. What happens to costs at these points?
b. Give two examples of important break-of-bulk points:
Glue this part of the page into your notebook.

3. 12. What are the three production cost factors associated with the site of an industry? (Memorize them)
13. What factors about a given piece of land make it attractive to industry and manufacturing?
LABOR
14. Define labor intensive industry
15. What is a capital intensive industry?
16. What industry accounts for a high percentage of the world’s women employed in manufacturing?
17. Textile and apparel spinning…
a. What is the cottage industry, and when was it commonplace?
b. What transformed spinning from the dispersed cottage industry to a highly clustered industry?
c. What percentage of the world’s thread production is synthetic thread?
d. China produces 40% of the world’s cotton thread – why is this percentage so large for China?
18. Textile and apparel weaving…
a. What percentage of the world’s woven cotton fabric is produced in LDCs?
19. Textile and apparel assembly…
a. Where are most of the 80 billion articles of clothing sold worldwide in a year produced?
LAND
20. “Land” not only involves the Earth’s surface; it also is considered to encompass ___________________
and ____________________ resources.
21. Give three examples of possible “attractions” for industries as they consider where to settle.
22. Explain the role electricity plays in location of aluminum factories.
CAPITAL
23. What is capital?
24. High tech industries clustered in California’s Silicon Valley. There were two major reasons for this choice
of location; list the reasons, stating the most important first.
25. ________ of all capital in the U.S. is spent on new industries in the Silicon Valley.

4. 26. What are two difficulties LDCs face in trying to get capital for industry?
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