NCERT Class 6 Social Science Chapter 1
Locating Places on the Earth
This chapter introduces students to the coordinate system used to locate any place on Earth using latitudes and longitudes. Students learn about the equator, tropics, polar circles, and how the globe is divided into a grid. Understanding these concepts helps in reading maps and understanding time zones across the world.
Read Online
Key Terms
- Latitude
- Horizontal lines that run parallel to the equator, measuring distance north or south of the equator in degrees.
- Longitude
- Vertical lines running from the North Pole to the South Pole, measuring distance east or west of the Prime Meridian.
- Equator
- The imaginary horizontal line at 0° latitude that divides the Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
- Prime Meridian
- The imaginary vertical line at 0° longitude that passes through Greenwich, England, dividing Earth into Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
- Grid System
- The network of latitudes and longitudes that forms a grid on the globe, used to identify exact locations on Earth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between latitude and longitude?▾
Latitudes are horizontal lines parallel to the equator measuring north-south position, while longitudes are vertical lines from pole to pole measuring east-west position. Together they form a grid to locate any point on Earth.
How many latitudes and longitudes are there?▾
There are 180 lines of latitude (90° North and 90° South) and 360 lines of longitude (180° East and 180° West). The equator is 0° latitude and the Prime Meridian is 0° longitude.
What are the important latitudes on Earth?▾
The important latitudes are the Equator (0°), Tropic of Cancer (23.5°N), Tropic of Capricorn (23.5°S), Arctic Circle (66.5°N), and Antarctic Circle (66.5°S).
How are time zones related to longitudes?▾
Earth is divided into 24 time zones based on longitudes. Every 15° of longitude equals one hour of time difference because Earth rotates 360° in 24 hours, which equals 15° per hour.
What is the significance of the Prime Meridian?▾
The Prime Meridian at 0° longitude passes through Greenwich, England, and serves as the reference point for measuring all other longitudes. It also determines Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), used as the world's standard time reference.
Disclaimer & Attribution
- All NCERT textbook PDFs displayed on this page are served directly from NCERT's official servers at ncert.nic.in. We do not host, store, or redistribute any PDF files on our servers.
- This website is free to use. We do not sell, charge for, or commercially exploit any NCERT content.
- All textbook content is the intellectual property of NCERT, Government of India and is published under their open-access policy for educational purposes.
- This page is provided purely for educational reference in compliance with NCERT's guidelines for non-commercial use of their freely available materials.