Geography Series - 2

In the last article, we have dealt with basic introduction of Geography. Today, we’ll study about how to find location of any place & effect of Earth’s rotation and revolution around Sun.

ü  Location of any place (i.e. any place can be pin-pointed) can be find from its Latitude & longitude.

§   LATITUDE- Angle of place from the imaginary horizontal line at equator.

§  LONGITUDE: Vertical angle measured along equator east or west of the prime meridian. Any line could have been taken as Prime Meridian for measuring Longitude. So, through international agreement, zero meridian is the one which passes through Greenwich near London and this is Prime Meridian.

ü  DAY & NIGHT - Due to earth’s rotation on its own axis. Earth takes 24 hours to rotate around its axis. During rotation, the part of earth facing Sun has Day and the other part has night.

ü  Earth’s revolution- Earth takes 365-1/4 days to complete one revolution around Sun.

¨      Axis of earth is 661/2^o causing Seasons & varying length of day & night. 

§  If axis was perpendicular, equal days and nights would have been there.

§  At Arctic Circle (661/2^o) sun never rises & darkness is there on 22 December. Beyond that, number of days with complete darkness increases till North Pole where half the year there’s complete darkness. Therefore, region beyond Arctic Circle is popularly known as “ Land of the Midnight Sun”. Reverse happens during summer time.

§  In Southern Hemisphere, same process happens just conditions are reversed i.e. continuous days in winters & nights in summers

§  Dawn: Period between sunrise & full daylight; Twilight: Period between Sunset & complete darkness.

§  This was about some basic terms which UPSC may ask (Eg. Solstice & Equinox) and its always good to know such terms.

Ø  The next article will cover Time and Date Concept.

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