1. Answer the following questions briefly.
What is the true shape of the earth?
(b) What is a globe?
(c) What is the latitudinal value of the Tropic of Cancer?
(d) What are the three heat zones of the Earth?
(e) What are parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude?
Why does the torrid zone receive maximum amount of heat?
g) Why is it 5.30 p.m. in India and 12.00 noon in London?
Answers
Answer:
a) The Earth is an irregularly shaped ellipsoid.
While the Earth appears to be round when viewed from the vantage point of space, it is actually closer to an ellipsoid.
b) A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to some maps, but unlike maps, do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe of Earth is called a terrestrial globe.
c) Tropic of Cancer, latitude approximately 23°27′ N of the terrestrial Equator. This latitude corresponds to the northernmost declination of the Sun's ecliptic to the celestial equator.
d) Heat Zones of Earth - Torrid, Temperate & Frigid Zone.
e) Latitude is a measure of how far north or south somewhere is from the Equator; longitude is a measure of how far east or west it is from the Prime Meridian. Whilst lines (or parallels) of latitude all run parallel to the Equator, lines (or meridians) of longitude all converge at the Earth's North and South Poles.
f) The mid-day sun is exactly overhead at least once a year on all latitudes in between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. This area, therefore, receives the maximum heat and is called the Torrid Zone.
g) The Earth rotates 1° in four minute. Therefore, the time in India is 5 hrs and 28 minutes ahead of London (since India is located to the east of Greenwich). So if the time in London is 12:00 pm, we will add 5 hrs and 30 minutes to it which will be 5:30 pm.