Geography Series - I

Hey Guys, What’s up? Prelims 2015 is over & authentic key is also out. You might have checked your scores and have realised where you stand. For those who couldn’t make it to the Mains 2015, don’t lose heart and start afresh with renewed vigour and zeal. Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.  

As we, at Unacademy, are here to help you in making your preparation more enjoyable and smooth, a new initiative has been taken which will help you in your preparation.

Here, I am starting with Geography for UPSC General Studies from scratch. 

Geography is one of the most interesting subjects and looking at the trend of last 5 years minimum 10% questions are asked from it both in prelims & mains

GEOGRAPHY is derived from Greek Word “Geographia” meaning “Earth Description”.

Let’s Start with Physical Geography.

Physical Geography

§  Origin of Universe

§ Primitive theories- Nebular Hypothesis by Immanuel Kant. It says:

·       Solar System formed from nebulous material (rotating cloud of extremely hot gases).

·       Centrifugal force (from Nebula’s rotation) + Gravitational Force (Nebula’s mass) = ring of gases condensing into planets & satellites while remaining portion formed Sun.

·       Helps understanding formation of earth having different layers with different densities.

§  Big Bang Theory (most popular) by Edward Hubble. It says:

·       Universe expanded from infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense, something – tiny ball.

·       It then inflated, expanded, cooled from very small & very hot to current universe.

·       Please note space between galaxies is increasing & not galaxies.

·       Expanding universe theory (The Big Bang Theory title track will help you in remembering some facts viz. Our whole universe was in a hot dense state, then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started….)

§  Distance between galaxies is measured in unit known as LIGHT YEAR (i.e. distance travelled by light who’s speed is 300,000km/sec in 1 year = 9.46 X 10¹²)

§  Solar System-formed some 5-5.6 billion years ago.

§  Consists of Sun & 8 planets viz. Mercury, Venus (often considered as “Earth’s twin”), Earth & Mars are Terrestrial (because earth like)/inner (because lie between sun & asteroid belt) planets; Rest Four- Jupiter (largest planet, made of Hydrogen, Helium & methane), Saturn (3 rings & nine satellites), Uranus (only planet rotating east to west) & Neptune are Jovian (Jupiter like, more gases)/outer planets.

§  Shape of Earth is GEOID i.e. flattened at both ends (like orange) + if observed closely it’s undulating as high lands & oceans present.

This was the crisp introduction about Geography where we learnt about: 

>  Introduction of Geography

> Theories of Origin of Universe

> Introduction of Solar System.

In the next article, we'll learn about Latitude, Longitude, Day & Night, Solstice, Equinox, Dawn & Twilight.

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§     Ciao !