Locating Places on the Earth — Class 6 Social Science
Exploring Society: India and Beyond · Chapter 1
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- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
Chapter summary
Key ideas & terms
- Scale
- The ratio that tells how a distance on a map relates to the actual distance on the ground, e.g. 1 cm = 500 m.
- Latitude
- An imaginary line (parallel) measuring distance north or south of the Equator, from 0° to 90°.
- Longitude
- An imaginary line (meridian) measuring distance east or west of the Prime Meridian, from 0° to 180°.
- Prime Meridian
- The 0° longitude passing through Greenwich, fixed in 1884 as the international reference line.
- Indian Standard Time
- India's single standard time, which is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
- International Date Line
- An imaginary line near 180° longitude; crossing it changes the date by one day.
Extra questions & answers
What is a map?
A map is a drawing or representation of an area as seen from above; it may show a village, a country or the whole world.
What are the three main components of a map?
Distance (shown by the scale), direction and symbols are the three main components of a map.
Why is a globe a better model of the Earth than a flat map?
Because the Earth is nearly a sphere, a spherical globe represents its geography more accurately than a flat sheet, which cannot show a sphere without distortion.
What is the latitude of the Equator and of the poles?
The Equator is 0°, the North Pole is 90°N and the South Pole is 90°S.
How does latitude relate to climate?
Climate is generally hot (torrid) near the Equator, moderate (temperate) at middle latitudes, and cold (frigid) near the poles.
What is the Prime Meridian and when was it fixed?
The Prime Meridian is the 0° longitude passing through Greenwich, agreed upon as the international standard in 1884.
Why does longitude help us measure time?
The Earth turns 360° in 24 hours, so each 15° of longitude corresponds to a difference of one hour of local time.
How far ahead of GMT is Indian Standard Time?
Indian Standard Time is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
What happens when you cross the International Date Line?
You change the date by one day — subtracting a day if travelling eastward and adding a day if travelling westward.
Which ancient Indian city had its own prime meridian?
Ujjayinī (today Ujjain) lay on the madhya rekhā, an ancient Indian prime meridian used by astronomers such as Varāhamihira.
LET'S EXPLORE
Observe the picture above. What do you notice? Where does the water in the lake come from?
The picture shows a small lake with a hill in the background, a narrow road, a small house with a tiled roof and a few trees. The water in the lake comes mainly from rainfall, streams flowing down the hill and groundwater. It may also be fed by seasonal rivulets during the monsoon.
Observe the picture above. What do you notice? Who made the road and why?
The road is man-made. It was built by people, perhaps villagers or the local government, to connect the house and the lake area to nearby villages or fields so people can travel, transport goods and reach water easily.
Observe the picture above. What do you notice? What could be the activities of people living in the small house? What could be their history? Their future?
People living there may do farming, fishing in the lake, collecting firewood or grazing animals. Their history is linked to the local land and water resources they have depended on for generations. Their future will depend on access to education, jobs, better roads and how the environment is protected.
Write down your answers and discuss them with your classmates.
This is a classroom activity. Write your observations in your notebook in 3-4 sentences and then share them in a group. Listening to others helps you notice new details and learn different interpretations of the same picture.
Now, looking at the picture on the facing page, what questions come to your mind? Write them down.
Looking at the modern city picture with tall glass buildings, wide roads and cars, questions could be: Why are the buildings so tall? What do people do in those offices? Where does the electricity and water for such a big city come from? How is life here different from the village by the lake?
How do you propose to find answers to the questions related to these two images?
We can find answers by observing carefully, asking elders or teachers, reading books and maps, searching reliable sources, and using Social Science methods like geography for land and water, history for past life, and economics for present activities.
The Big Questions
1. What is a map and how do we use it? What are its main components?
A map is a drawing of an area as seen from above, reduced to a small scale. We use it to locate places, find routes and understand distances and directions. Its three main components are distance shown by scale, direction shown by the compass or north arrow, and symbols and colours that represent features.
2. What are coordinates? How can latitude and longitude be used to mark any location on the Earth?
Coordinates are a pair of numbers that fix a place precisely. Latitude measures distance north or south of the Equator
3. How are local time and standard time related to longitude?
The Earth turns
LET'S EXPLORE
On the map in Fig. 1.1 given on page 8 — 1. Mark the hospital.
On the printed map the hospital is the building marked HOSPITAL with a red cross, located just above the MARKET and below the blue water body, to the left of the NAGAR PANCHAYAT. Mark it with a circle or colour as instructed by your teacher.
On the map in Fig. 1.1 given on page 8 — 2. What is the meaning of the blue-coloured areas?
The blue-coloured areas represent water bodies. The winding blue line is a river or stream and the larger blue patch is a lake or pond.
On the map in Fig. 1.1 given on page 8 — 3. Which is farther away from the railway station — the school, the Nagar Panchayat or the public garden?
By estimating distances along the road network on the map, the public garden, shown as a hedge-enclosed field at the east end, is farthest from the railway station at the west end. The school is closest to the station, and the Nagar Panchayat is in between.
As a class activity, form groups of three or four students each. Let each group try to draw a map of your school and some of the streets or roads that lead to it, and a few neighbouring buildings. At the end, compare all the maps and discuss.
Draw your school as a rectangle in the centre, mark the entrance gate, playground and nearby roads with lines, add 3-4 landmarks like a shop or temple using simple symbols and a north arrow. Comparing maps shows that scale, direction and symbols may differ but the relative positions should be similar.
LET'S EXPLORE
Draw a simple map of a school's playground. Let us assume it is a rectangle, 40 m in length and 30 m in width. Draw it precisely with your ruler on a scale of 1 cm = 10 m.
With
Now measure the diagonal of the rectangle. How many centimetres do you get? Using the scale, calculate the real length of the playground's diagonal, in metres.
The diagonal of a
LET'S EXPLORE
Consider the map of the small city again. Identify the correct and incorrect statements in the list below: 1. The market is north of the hospital.
Incorrect. On the map the MARKET is south-southeast of the HOSPITAL, not directly north.
Consider the map of the small city again. Identify the correct and incorrect statements in the list below: 2. The museum is southeast of the bank.
Incorrect. The MUSEUM is directly south of the BANK, not southeast. It lies on the southern road below the BANK.
Consider the map of the small city again. Identify the correct and incorrect statements in the list below: 3. The railway station is northwest of the hospital.
Correct. The RAILWAY STATION is to the west and slightly north of the HOSPITAL, so northwest is accurate.
Consider the map of the small city again. Identify the correct and incorrect statements in the list below: 4. The lake is northwest of the apartment blocks.
Incorrect. The blue lake is southwest of the apartment blocks. The apartments are northeast of the lake.
Taking your school as the starting point, do you know approximately in which cardinal direction your home is located? Discuss with your teacher and your parents.
This is a personal activity. Stand at your school gate, use a compass or the sun's position where the sun rises in the east, and see whether your home lies north, south, east, west or in an intermediate direction like northeast. Note it and verify with family.
LET'S EXPLORE
Draw a rough map of your locality or your village, including your home, school and a few other important landmarks. Show the cardinal directions and use a few of the symbols shown in Fig. 1.2 on page 12 to mark some important features.
Draw a simple sketch with your home and school as boxes, add roads as lines, a river or pond in blue if present, and use standard symbols like RS for railway station, PO for post office, temple or mosque symbols. Add a north arrow at the top and label the four cardinal directions. No scale is needed for a rough sketch.
LET'S EXPLORE
Using the same terms, write down your move if you play black and respond with the same move.
If White moved pawn from
LET'S EXPLORE
If the globe or atlas in your class has well-marked latitudes and longitudes, try to note down approximate values for the latitude and longitude of (1) Mumbai, (2) Kolkata, (3) Singapore, (4) Paris.
Approximate values from an atlas are: (1) Mumbai about
LET'S EXPLORE
Two friends, one sitting in Porbandar (Gujarat) and the other in Tinsukia (Assam), are speaking on the phone late afternoon. The latter remarks that the sun has set in Assam and it's now dark. The former is surprised and says, “But it's still full daylight here!” Explain why. And, as a class activity, calculate the difference in local time between those two cities. (Hint: for now, consider the difference in longitude between Porbandar and Tinsukia to be 30°; later, you can find out the precise value.)
The Earth rotates from west to east, so the sun rises and sets earlier in the east. Tinsukia in eastern India is about
LET'S EXPLORE
Return to the two friends sitting in Gujarat and Assam. Use this example to explain the difference between local time and standard time.
Local time depends on the exact longitude of each place, so Porbandar and Tinsukia have a two-hour difference in local solar time. Standard time is the common clock time fixed for the whole country based on the central meridian
Questions, activities and projects
1. Returning to page 10 and to Fig. 5.2 in Chapter 5 of this textbook, taking the scale to be 2.5 cm = 500 km, calculate the real distance from the estuary of the Narmada River to the estuary of the Ganga river. (Hint: round off your measurement on the map to an easy number.)
At
2. Why is it 5:30 pm in India when it is 12 pm or noon in London?
London is near the Prime Meridian
3. Why do we need symbols and colours in the map?
A map is small but must show many details. Symbols and colours let us show mountains, rivers, roads, cities, forests and boundaries clearly in limited space. They make maps easy to read, standardised and useful for all users without drawing every feature realistically.
4. Find out what you have in the eight directions from your home or school.
This is a field activity. Stand at your home or school and list landmarks in the eight directions: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest. For example, north may be the main road, east the playground, south a market and west a river. Draw a compass rose and fill the names.
5. What is the difference between local time and standard time? Discuss it in groups, with each group writing an answer in 100 to 150 words. Compare the answers.
Local time is the solar time at a particular longitude, changing by 4 minutes per degree of longitude and by one hour per
6. Delhi's and Bengaluru's latitudes are 29°N and 13°N; their longitudes are almost the same, 77°E. How much will be the difference in local time between the two cities?
Local time depends on longitude, not latitude. Both cities are near
7. Mark the following statements as true or false; explain your answers with a sentence or two. All parallels of latitude have the same length.
False. Parallels are circles parallel to the Equator. The Equator is longest; circles get smaller toward the poles where
7. Mark the following statements as true or false; explain your answers with a sentence or two. The length of a meridian of longitude is half of that of the Equator.
True. Each meridian is a half-circle from North Pole to South Pole. Two opposite meridians together make a full circle equal to the Equator, so one meridian is half the Equator's length.
7. Mark the following statements as true or false; explain your answers with a sentence or two. The South Pole has a latitude of 90°S.
True. Latitudes are measured from
7. Mark the following statements as true or false; explain your answers with a sentence or two. In Assam, the local time and the IST are identical.
False. IST is based on
7. Mark the following statements as true or false; explain your answers with a sentence or two. Lines separating the time zones are identical with meridians of longitude.
False. Ideally time zones follow every
7. Mark the following statements as true or false; explain your answers with a sentence or two. The Equator is also a parallel of latitude.
True. The Equator is the largest parallel of latitude at
8. Solve the crossword below. Across 1. Lets you squeeze a huge area into your map
SCALE - the ratio like
8. Solve the crossword below. Across 4. A convenient sphere
GLOBE - a spherical model of the Earth that represents geography more accurately than a flat map.
8. Solve the crossword below. Across 5. The longest parallel of latitude
EQUATOR - the
8. Solve the crossword below. Across 6. The place the Prime Meridian is attached to
GREENWICH - the area in London through which the
8. Solve the crossword below. Across 8. So convenient to find your way
MAP - a drawing of an area showing places, routes, distances and directions.
8. Solve the crossword below. Across 10. A measure of the distance from the Equator
LATITUDE - measured in degrees north or south, from
8. Solve the crossword below. Down 2. A measure of the distance from the Prime Meridian
LONGITUDE - measured in degrees east or west from
8. Solve the crossword below. Down 3. These two together allow us to locate a place
COORDINATES - the pair of latitude and longitude that fixes any point on Earth.
8. Solve the crossword below. Down 6. What latitudes and longitudes together create
GRID - the network of intersecting parallels and meridians on a globe or map.
8. Solve the crossword below. Down 7. The time we all follow in India
IST - Indian Standard Time,
8. Solve the crossword below. Down 9. On top of the world
NORTH POLE - the northern end of the Earth's axis at
8. Solve the crossword below. Down 11. An abbreviation for a line across which the day and date change
IDL - International Date Line, approximately along