Chapter 1 — Locating Places on Earth
Exploring Society: India and Beyond — India and the World: Land and the People · pages 8–25
Lesson
The full chapter: 30 key terms, 13 concepts, solved examples, all 8 figures described, and every exercise question.
Revision Sheet
Condensed one-page revision. The latitude-vs-longitude table, the numbers to memorise, and the common mistakes.
Flashcards
40 click-to-flip cards in 6 decks, plus a rapid-fire number drill. Shuffle them for a harder run.
Mind Map
How the whole chapter fits together — from "the Earth is round" all the way to the International Date Line.
Question Bank
35 written questions, 52 marks — fill in the blanks, true/false, match, short and long answers, and HOTS.
MCQ Test — 50 questions
A proper timed test. One question at a time, no answers until you finish, then a full review with the reason for every mistake.
What this chapter is about
The whole chapter answers one question: how do we say exactly where something is? It answers it twice — first for a small area, using a map, and then for the whole planet, using the grid of latitudes and longitudes.
The clever twist at the end is that the grid gives us time as well as place. Because the Earth turns a steady 15° every hour, knowing how far east or west you are is knowing what time it is — and that leads to local time, standard time, time zones and the International Date Line.
The six things most worth remembering
1 · Three components of a map
Distance (the scale), direction (the cardinal points) and symbols (fixed for India by the Survey of India).
2 · Why we need a globe
The Earth is nearly a sphere, flattened at the poles. A curved surface cannot be flattened without tearing — the orange-peel test.
3 · Latitude vs longitude
Parallels are full circles of unequal length; meridians are half-circles, all equal. Latitude 0°–90°, longitude 0°–180°.
4 · 15° per hour
360° ÷ 24 hours = 15° every hour. Go east, time is ahead; go west, time is behind.
5 · IST = GMT + 5:30
Which is exactly why it is 5:30 p.m. in India when it is noon in London.
6 · India's own prime meridian
The madhya rekhā through Ujjayinī (Ujjain), where Varāhamihira worked some 1,500 years ago.