0:00geographers often divided large territories such as the United States
0:08into smaller units to examine them more closely in this program we will examine
0:15the US as a whole and also take a more detailed look at our country's special
0:20and area's Natural Resources waterways and people the United States and
0:27compasses some three million 794 thousand square miles over a quarter
0:34million square miles of US territory consists of bodies of water such as the
0:39Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay based on its area the United States is the
0:46third largest country in the world only Russia and Canada are bigger America
0:53consists of 50 states and except for hawaii which is out in the middle of the
0:58Pacific Ocean every state is located on the continent of North America the lower
1:0548 states cover much of the North American continent they are bordered by
1:10the nations of canada on the north and Mexico to the south
1:15each of these 48 states shares a border with at least one other state located in
1:23the northernmost region of the continent Alaska does not join any other states
1:28instead it shares its eastern boundary with Canada
1:32of the 50 states Alaska is by far the largest encompassing the land area of
1:39nearly 600,000 square miles in fact Alaska is more than 500 times that size
1:46of Rhode Island our smallest state but even though Alaska's land area is so
1:53much larger rhode island's population actually exceeds Alaska's by over
1:58400,000 people states in certain areas of the country are quite similar to one
2:06another in terms of their general land features their climate and the species
2:10of plants and animals that are found there based on such similarities
2:16geographers group states together into geographical regions for purposes of
2:21study the seven basic regions of the United States are the New England region
2:28the Middle Atlantic region the southeastern region the Midwestern
2:35region the mountain region the Pacific region and the southwestern region