This post of Locating Places on the Earth class 6 notes is very helpful for the students to develop understanding of important concepts of chapter 1 of class 6 sst.
Class 6 SST Locating places on the earth
Map
A map is representation or a drawing of some area.
Atlas
An Atlas is a book that contains collection of maps.
There are several kinds of maps
Physical maps–– These maps mainly show some natural features such as mountains, machines lettuce planes and rivers etc.
Political maps— These maps shows details of countries or States with their boundaries and cities with their administrative headquarters etc.
Thematic maps — This maps shows specific kind of information associated with a particular theme like river maps crops maps, multipurpose project maps national parks maps.
Components of maps
Distance ,direction and symbols are the three important components of map.
Distance —
The actual distance between the two points on the maps are presented by using scale and scale to be used depends on the map which is used. Like a distance of 500 m is presented by using the scale in which 1 cm is equal to 500 m.
Directions
There are four directions in which North at the top and moving clockwise East South and West. These are called the cardinal directions or the cardinal points.
Other than these ,intermediate directions are also used such as Northeast ,Southeast ,Southwest and Northwest.
Symbols
These are small drawings of actual buildings that are used to represent these pictures like road and railways lines and for natural elements such as river forest are shown on the map by such drawing known as symbols.
The survey of India ,a government body has fixed a sset of symbols for maps of India or parts of India.
Mapping the Earth
It is difficult to do mapping of the earth as it is spherical in shape but not completely as it is flattened at the poles. To understand the earth on the map it is flattened by assuming the peeling of the orange.
Globe
A Globe is a sphere on which map is drawn of Earth or may be of some other celestial bodies.As globe and the earth have the same spherical shape a globe represents better the geography of the Earth than a flat map.
Understanding coordinates
A system of coordinates is used in the maps to determine the location of any place on the map.
Latitudes
Latitude are the imaginary lines that runs East and West and draws a circle around the earth. Such a line is called parallel of latitude.
There are 180 latitudes in which 90 latitude and the northern hemisphere and 90 latitude in the southern hemisphere.
The fixed points at the top and bottom are the two poles and halfway between them is the equator
Important Latitudes
1.Equator – It is the largest circle on the globe and 0° latitude is the equator.
2.Latitude of 90°N at poles is North Pole at top of globe and latitude of 90°S at poles is South Pole at bottom of globe.
3.Latitude of 23°30 North is called Tropic of Cancer
4.Latitude of 23°30 South is called Tropic of Capricorn
Latitude and climate
On the basis of location of latitude, there are three heat zones of the earth
1. Torrid zone( From equator to the Tropic of Cancer)
2. Temperate Zone (from Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn to 66°30 North and South)
3. Frigid Zone (From 66°30 N&S to 90°N&S)As we move from the equator towards the poles the climate becomes cool in temperate and cold in frigid Zone.
Longitudes
These are half circles running from north pole to south pole. These lines are called meridians of longitude. There are 180 longitude in the eastern hemisphereand 180 longitude in the Western hemisphere and total longitudes are 360.
As Earth rotates on its axis and it revolves around the sun. Sun illuminates the earth and rotation of the globe or Earth eastwards , we notice that for some places it is morning while for other it is mid -day ,evening or night.
For measuring latitude, we use a reference point called Prime meridian which is 0° longitude. It is also called Greenwich meridian because in year 1884 sub Nations decided that meridian passing through Greenwich, an area of London in England would become the international standard for the Prime meridian.
Latitude and longitude together are the two coordinates of a place that makes a fixed point of location of any place on the earth. Like Delhi lies at 29°N latitude and 77°E.
The parallel of latitude and the meridians of longitude together on the globe constitutea grid for the globe that’s why they are called grid lines..
Understanding Time Zones
There are different locations on the earth which have different time zones. As Earth rotates on its axis in 24 hours to complete a full turn of 360° which are meridian of longitudes.
0° longitude which is the Prime meridian that is considered as the fixed point that is located at Greenwich in London, United Kingdom known as GMT..1° of longitude shows 4 minutes and 15° of longitudes shows 1 hour of local time. If it is 12:00 p.m. or noon at Greenwich then moving 15° west from GMT minus one hour and moving 15° East adds one hour.
This method can be used to calculate the local time of any place on the earth that’s why most countries adopt a standard time based on a meridian passing through them. Indian standard time is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of the local time at Greenwich (GMT).
A 180° meridians of Longitudes scold the International Date Line. You can see on the map ,the + 12 and -12 time zones travelling eastward,subtract a day (Monday to Sunday) and travelling westward adds a day ( From Sunday to Monday).
There are some countries like Russia Canada or the USA are two large in size and have wide pension of longitude have many time zones like USA has 6 time zones and Russia has 11 time zone.