GEOGRAPHY – GRADE 6

LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES - CLASS NOTES

Fill in the blanks:

1) The distance between any two latitudes on the earth's surface located at an interval of
one degree is about 111 km.
2) Indian Standard Time passes from Naini, Allahabad.
3) It takes about 4 minutes to pass through 1 degree longitude.
4) Each time zone is 15 degree of longitude.
5) Local time can be reckoned by the shadow cast by the sun.
State whether the following statements are true or false.
1) The world is divided into 24 standard time zones. True
2) Latitude is defined as the angular distance measured east or west of prime meridian.
False.
3) The Standard Meridian of India is 82.5 degree east longitude. True
4) Grid is a network of parallels of latitudes and meridians of longitudes. True
5) There are 12 standard times in Russia. False
Answer the following questions in about 40-50 words.

Q.1. List the main characteristics of the parallels and meridians.

Parallels:
a) All parallels are perfect circles except the North and South Poles.
b) The Equator is the largest parallel.
c) The lengths of the parallels decrease, as they move away from the Equator.
d) All parallels are equidistant from each other.
e) The distance between any two parallels at an interval of 1 degree is 111 kilometers.

Meridians:
a) The lengths of all meridians are the same, as all of them are semicircles which connect the
two poles.
b) Any two opposite meridians when taken together form a complete circle.
c) The maximum distance between any two meridians is at the Equator.
d) The distance between any two meridians is decreases as one moves away the Equator as
all the meridians meet at the poles.
Q.2 What is the purpose of having time zones?
a) Countries like Russia, Canada and USA have a large east‒west stretch. We know that as
the time at any place depends on the longitude of that place, a large longitudinal extent thus
can lead to non-uniformity in time within different places in the same country.
b) Thus, to avoid this, in 1884, the world was divided into 24 standard time zones to ensure
uniformity and predictability in the time zones.

Q.3 "Standard time is needed for every country ". Explain

a) The local time of the standard meridian is taken as the local time for the whole country.
b) This concept of standard time for the whole country is needed because time varies with
change in longitudes.
c) If all places on different meridians follow their own local time, there would be confusion
and chaos.

Q.4 "The standard time of Bangladesh is half an hour ahead of India ". Explain
a) In 1884, the world was divided into 24 standard time zones. Now, each belt is a narrow
belt running from north to south, with an east-west extent of 15 degrees.
b) A meridian passing through the centre of each time zone has been selected to give the
standard time of that zone.
c) The standard time of Bangladesh is ahead of India by half an hour, as its standard
meridian is 7.5° to the east of India’s standard meridian.

Q.5 What is the relationship between longitude and time? Give examples.
a) There is a direct relationship between the longitude of a place and the time at that place.
As the earth rotates, every meridian on earth faces the sun once a day. This is the time when
the sun reaches the highest point in the sky. We call it midday or noon time at that
meridian.
b) When the sun is at the highest point in the at Greenwich, all the places along the Prime
Meridian will have midday or noon time.
c) As the earth rotates from west to east, the places which are situated towards the east of
the Prime Meridian will have sunrise earlier than those which are situated towards the west.
d) This means that Tokyo experiences sunlight before London and London experiences
sunlight before New York.
e)Thus the places which are towards the east of the Prime Meridian will be ahead of the
Greenwich time and those towards the west of Prime Meridian will be behind the
Greenwich time. For example, Kolkata is located at 90°E longitude and London at 0°. The
time difference is thus 6 hours between the two.

Q.6 What is meant by local time of a place? How is the standard time of a place different from
its local time?
a) The local time of a place is determined with reference to the position of the Sun in the
sky. When all places on the same meridian of longitude have noon, it is considered as
their local time.
b) Some countries have a vast longitudinal extent and thus local time within the country
may vary from place to place. Thus a central meridian passing through the country is
considered as the standard meridian.
c) The time based on this standard meridian which is adopted for the entire country is
known as the standard time.

Q.7 Explain the heat zones of the Earth with the help of a diagram.

a) Torrid zone: It is a region between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of
Capricorn. This region receives the direct vertical rays of the Sun for almost the
whole year. Therefore, this zone gets the maximum heat from the Sun. This
zone is known as the torrid or the tropical zone.
b) Temperate Zone: This zone lie between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic
Circle in the Northern Hemisphere and between the Tropic of Capricorn and the
Antarctic Circle in the southern hemisphere. This zone gets the slanting rays of
the Sun as the angle of the Sun’s rays goes on decreasing towards the Poles.
Thus this zone experiences moderate temperature.
c) Frigid Zone: The frigid zone lies between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole
and between the Antarctic Circle and the South Pole. This zone is also known as
the Polar region. Since it receives the extreme slanting rays of the Sun, the
temperature is extremely low throughout the year. This is the reason why the
polar regions are generally covered with ice.