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Landforms Timeline
and Life and Sources
Oceans and of History
Continents
India, That
Is Bharat
THEME A
India and the THEME B
Locating World – Land
Places on the Tapestry
and the of the Past
Earth The Beginnings of
People
Indian Civilisation
Social
The Value India’s
of Work
THEME E Science THEME C
Cultural
Economic Our Cultural
Roots
Life Around Heritage and
Us Knowledge
Traditions
Theme D
Economic Unity in
Governance
Activities and Diversity,
Around Us Democracy or ‘Many in
the One’ Introduction – Why Social Science?
Local Government
in Rural Areas
Governance
1
LET’S EXPLORE
Æ Observe the picture above. What do you notice?
Where does the water in the lake come from?
Who made the road and why?
What could be the activities of people living in
the small house? What could be their history?
Their future?
Æ Write down your answers and discuss them with your
classmates.
Æ Now, looking at the picture on the facing page, what
Exploring Society: India and Beyond
6
1
CHAPTER
Locating Places
on the Earth
The globe of the Earth stands in space, made up of water,
earth, fire and air and is spherical. ... It is surrounded by
all creatures, terrestrial as well as aquatic.
— Āryabhaṭa (about 500 CE)
LET’S EXPLORE
Æ Draw a simple map o 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 o 1 cm = 10 m.
Æ Now measure the diagonal o the rectangle. How many
centimetres do you get? Using the scale, calculate the real
length o the playground’s diagonal, in metres.
page 12.
LET’S EXPLORE
Draw a rough map o your locality or your village, including
your home, school and a ew other important landmarks. Show
the cardinal directions and use a ew o the symbols shown in
Fig. 1.2 on page 12 to mark some important eatures.
11
Railway Line: broad gauge,
metre gauge, railway station RS
Boundary: international,
state, district
Settlement, graveyard
Trees, grass
have just three or our large pieces o the skin; then try and
fatten them on a table — you will see that you cannot do it
without tearing them at the edges.
Now, consider a globe, which is a sphere on which a map
is drawn. This may be a map o the Earth, the Moon, the
planet Mars, the stars and constellations in the sky, etc.
The physical object, like the one shown in the drawing on
the next page, is a sphere that is generally made o metal,
12 plastic or cardboard.
Here we will study the globe representing
the Earth’s geography. Because the globe
and the Earth have the same spherical
shape, a globe will better represent the
geography o the Earth than a fat map.
Let us now explore some o its eatures.
a) Understanding coordinates
Imagine a big market in a city or town, with
neat rows o shops, all the same size. You
want to meet a riend at a stationery shop
inside the market. But your riend does
not know where the shop is. So you would give directions
like, “Meet me at 6 pm at the 7th shop in the 5th row rom
the entrance.” This will allow your riend to precisely
determine your location.
Now, consider a chessboard.
To record moves by advanced
players, letters are placed
alongside the main pieces
(rom ‘a’ to ‘h’, see the image)
and numbers (rom 1 to 8) in
between the two sides. This
simple system allows players
to mark each square and
record every move. Here, the
white side has just opened the
1 – Locating Places on the Earth
LET’S EXPLORE
Using the same terms, write down your move i you play black
and respond with the same move. 13
The system used in these two examples may be called a
system of coordinates. Thanks to their two coordinates,
the stationery shop as well as the chess square on the
chessboard can be precisely determined.
A similar system o coordinates is used in the world o maps
to determine the location o any place on a map. Let us see
how this system works.
b) Latitudes
Let us return to the globe. It is easy to identiy the North
Pole and the South Pole on it. Rotate the globe; while it
rotates, the xed points at the top and bottom are the two
poles. Halway between them is the Equator; note the circle
marking it (see Fig. 1.3).
Imagine that you stand on the Equator and travel towards
one o the poles; your distance rom the Equator increases.
Latitude measures this distance rom the Equator. At any
point o this travel, you can draw an imaginary line that
runs east and west, parallel to the Equator. Such a line is
called a parallel of latitude and it draws a circle around
the Earth. Again, it is easy to note on the globe that the
largest circle is the Equator, while the circles marked by the
parallels o latitude grow smaller as we move northward or
southward (Fig. 1.3).
Latitudes are expressed in degrees; by convention, the
India and the World: Land and the People
the two poles are 90° North and 90° South respectively; this
is noted 90°N and 90°S.
There is a connection between latitude and climate. Around
the Equator, the climate is generally hot (it is also called
‘torrid’). As you travel away rom the Equator towards one
o the two poles (in other words, as your latitude increases),
the climate becomes more moderate (or ‘temperate’). And
closer to the North or South Pole, the climate grows colder
14 (or ‘rigid’). You will learn in Science why this is so, and
also why we experience dierent seasons in the course o
a year.
c) Longitudes
Imagine now that you travel rom the North Pole to the South
Pole by the shortest possible line. Observe the globe: you
will see that instead o passing through Europe and Arica,
1 – Locating Places on the Earth
LET’S EXPLORE
I the globe or atlas in your class has well-marked latitudes
and longitudes, try to note down approximate values or the
latitude and longitude o (1) Mumbai, (2) Kolkata, (3) Singapore,
(4) Paris.
Greenwich
Meridian
Western Northern
Hemisphere Hemisphere
Equ
ato
r
Eastern
Hemisphere
Southern
Hemisphere
Fig. 1.4. This sketch shows how the Prime Meridian divides the Earth into
the Western and Eastern Hemispheres, while the Equator divides it into the
Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
was called madhya rekhā (or ‘middle line’) and passed through
the city o Ujjayinī (today Ujjain), which was a reputed centre
or astronomy over many centuries. Varāhamihira, a amous
astronomer, lived and worked there some 1,500 years ago.
Indian astronomers were aware o concepts o latitude and
longitude, including the need or a zero or prime meridian.
The Ujjayinī meridian became a reerence or calculations in
all Indian astronomical texts.
17
The map shows a ew ancient Indian cities close to the Ujjayinī
meridian. Some are very close to it, while others are a little
away. That is because measuring longitude required accurate
timekeeping, which was not as precise then as it is today.
75.8°E
Kurukṣhetra
Mālavangara / Nagar
Mumbai
Chennai
India and the World: Land and the People
Bengaluru
Exploring Society: India and Beyond
Ancient city
Modern city
Kumārī / Kanyakumari
Fig. 1.5. The Ujjayinī prime meridian used in ancient Indian astronomy. Cities
marked with a circle are mentioned in astronomical texts as being on this
meridian (the modern name is given after the oblique bar).
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1 – Locating Places on the Earth
Fig. 1.6. This map, published by the Survey of India, shows the country’s
outline along with a few parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude.
India’s latitudes extend approximately from to 8°N to 37°N, and longitudes
approximately from 68°E to 97°E. (The two colours have been added.)
19
Understanding Time Zones
Let’s make the globe rotate again rom west to east —
that is how our planet spins around its axis, making a ull
turn every 24 hours. A ull turn is 360°, so this means 15°
per hour (15 x 24 = 360). Let us now mark the meridians
o longitude every 15°. Moving eastward rom the Prime
Meridian, we get 0°, 15°E, 30°E, 45°E, and so on every 15°
up to 180°E. It is the same as adding one hour o local time
with each meridian — i it is 12 pm or noon at Greenwich, it
is 1 pm local time at 15°E, 2 pm at 30°E, and so on. But going
westward, it is the other way round — 11 am local time at
15°W, 10 am at 30°W, etc.
9 AM 10 AM 11 AM 12 AM 1 PM 2 PM 3 PM
15°
India and the World: Land and the People
Exploring Society: India and Beyond
Fig. 1.7. This graph shows longitudes at the bottom and the local time at the
top, with reference to the Prime Meridian at 0°. Each colour is a zone of 15°
centred on a meridian.
20
LET’S EXPLORE
Two riends, one sitting in Porbandar (Gujarat) and the other
in Tinsukia (Assam), are speaking on the phone late aternoon.
The latter remarks that the sun has set in Assam and it’s
now dark. The ormer is surprised and says, “But it’s still ull
daylight here!” Explain why. And, as a class activity, calculate
the dierence 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.)
LET’S EXPLORE
Return to the two riends sitting in Gujarat and Assam. Use
this example to explain the dierence between local time and
standard time.
21
Fig. 1.8. A world map of the time zones, showing the standard times (with
respect to GMT) for a few countries. (Note that international borders are
approximate, not exact.)
1 2
6 7
8 9
10 11
Across Down
1. Lets you squeeze a huge 2. A measure o the distance
area into your map rom the Prime Meridian
4. A convenient sphere 3. These two together allow
5. The longest parallel o us to locate a place
1 – Locating Places on the Earth
26
India and the World: Land and the People
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