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The Globe and Imaginary Lines
1. In olden days we used to take help from globes and maps to navigate.
Nowadays, we use the maps on the internet for navigation.
2. A Globe is designed to be an almost perfect copy of earth.
3. A Globe is a three-dimensional miniature model of the earth.
Continents and Oceans:
1. The planet earth has large land masses covered by water. These large
land masses are called Continents. The large water bodies surrounding
the continents are called oceans.
2. Continents:
a. There are seven continents on our planet:
1) Asia
2) Europe
3) Africa
4) North America
5) South America
6) Australia
7) Antarctica
b. Asis is the largest continent.
c. Australia is the smallest continent.
d. Each continent is divided into countries.
e. Our county India is the 7th largest country in the world, and it is
located in ASIA.
f. The earth has verities of landforms such as mountains, plains and
plateaus.
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3. Oceans:
a. There are five major oceans in the world.
1) Pacific Ocean
2) Indian Ocean
3) Atlantic Ocean
4) Arctic Ocean
5) Southern Ocean/Antarctic Ocean
b. The Antarctic Ocean is also called the Southern Ocean. It is the
newest ocean named in 2000.
c. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean.
d. The Arctic Ocean is the smallest ocean.
e. Besides the oceans, the Earth has many smaller water bodies such
as BAYS, SEAS, GULFS, RIVERS..etc
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EXERCISE NAME the CONTINENTS and OCEANS in the MAP:
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Globe:
1) A Globe is a three-dimensional miniature model of the earth.
2) A Globe represents the earth in simple and accurate way.
3) We can see only one half of the globe at a time.
4) A Globe can be rotated and turned, just like the earth spins on its axis.
5) The Axis of the Globe has two endpoints. These points are called poles.
6) The point at the top is called North Pole.
7) The point at the bottled is called South Pole.
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8) EARTHA was given the title of “Worlds” largest revolving and rotating
globe by Guinness book of world records in 1999.
9) It took 2 years to build the EARTHA GLOBE and it weights 2500KG.
Problems with Globes:
1. They do not allow us to see the entire Earth at a glance.
2. They do not show the places and landforms in great details.
3. They are difficult to carry.
PARALLELS OF LATITUDE:
1. Lines of Latitude also called as parallels.
2. Lines of latitude are imaginary horizontal lines that circle the Earth
from east to west.
3. Equator:
The latitude that divides the earth into two equal halves is called the
Equator.
4. Northern Hemisphere:
The part of the earth which lies to the north of the Equator is called
the Northern Hemisphere.
5. Southern Hemisphere:
The part of the earth which lies to the south of the Equator is called
the Southern Hemisphere.
6. We can draw parallels of latitude any where between 0 and 90
degrees in either hemisphere.
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7. If we draw parallels of latitude at 1 degree intervals, there will be
181 lines, 90 in Northern hemisphere and 90 in Southern
hemisphere and 1 at Equator (zero degrees).
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Features of parallels of latitudes:
1. The parallels of latitude are complete circles, except the North Pole and
South Pole, which are points.
2. The lengths of parallels decrease as you move away from the Equator.
3. The parallels are located at an equal distance from each other, they do
not touch or cut one another.
4. Equator is marked as 0 degree latitude. Latitude to the north of equator
are marked as N and the ones to the south are marked as S.
5. The north pole is marked as 90 N and the south pole marked as 90 S.
6. Some important parallels of latitude are
a. Arctic Circle 66 ½ N
b. Tropic of Cancer 23 ½ N
c. Tropic of Capricon 23 ½ S
d. Antarctic Circle 66 ½ S
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MERIDIANS OF LONGITUDE:
1. The imaginary lines on the globe running from NORTH to SOUTH are
called as meridians or lines of longitude.
2. Prime Meridian:
The Prime Meridian has a longitude of 0 degrees. It is an imaginary line
that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, passing through
Greenwich, England, and is the starting point for measuring longitude.
3. Meridians can be drawn anywhere between 0 degrees and 180 degrees
east or west of the Prime Meridian, so if they are drawn at 1 degree
intervals, there will be 360 meridians of longitude.
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Features of the meridians of longitude:
4. The meridians are all of the same length.
5. The distance between any two meridians is maximum at the equator.
6. The distance between any two meridians decreases as they move away
from equator towards the Poles.
7. The meridians cut the parallels at right angles, i.e 90 degrees.
8. Meridians help to measure the distance in east-west direction.
9. The Prime Meridian is 0-degree longitude. It divides the Earth into two
hemispheres – the Eastern and the Western.
10. The meridians to the east of the Prime Meridian are marked as E, while
the meridians to the west of it are marked as W.
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11.The 180E and 180W meridians lie on the same line, halfway around the
world from the Prime Meridian.
LOCATING PLACES:
1. The paralles and meridians intersects each other at right angles to form a
network is called a grid.
2. The grid helps us to locate the places on the globe.
3. In order to locate we need to know both longitude and latitude.
4. The point at which the latitude and longitude cross each other is the
location of the place.
5. For example Chennai is 13N and 80E
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6. The 180 degree longitude is called the International Date Line.
7. An international conference held in 1884 decided that the meridian
that passes through Greenwich in London will be called the Prime
Meridian.
8. The city of Ujjain was taken as the Prime Meridian by the early Indian
geographers.