 Our planet earth is not a sphere.

It is slightly flattened at the North and the South Poles

and bulge in the middle.
 Globe is a true model (miniature form) of the earth.
 On the globe, countries, continents and oceans are shown in their correct size.
Axis of earth:-
 A needle is fixed through the globe in a tilted manner, which is called its axis.
 Two points on the globe through which the needle passes are two poles – North Pole
and South Pole.
 The globe can be moved around this needle from west to east just as the earth moves.
 The real earth has no such needle. It moves around its axis, which is an imaginary line.
Equator:-
 Another imaginary line running on the globe divides it into two equal parts.
 This line is known as the equator.
 The northern half of the earth is known as the Northern Hemisphere and the southern
half is known as the Southern Hemisphere.
 They are both equal halves.
Parallels of latitude:-
 All parallel circles from the equator up to the poles are called parallels of latitudes.
Latitudes are measured in degrees.
 The equator represents the zero degree latitude.
 Since the distance from the equator to either of the poles is one-fourth of a circle round
the earth, it will measure ¼th of 360 degrees, i.e. 90°.
 Thus, 90 degrees north latitude marks the North Pole and 90 degrees south latitude
marks the South Pole.
 All parallels north of the equator are called ‘north latitudes.’ Similarly all parallels south
of the equator ‘south latitudes.’
 The value of each latitude is, therefore, followed by either the word north or south.
Generally, this is indicated by the letter ‘N’ or ‘S’.
 For example, both Chandrapur in Maharashtra (India) and Belo Horizonte in Brazil
(South America) are located on parallels of about 20° latitude. But the former is 20°
north of the equator and the latter is 20° south of it.
Important parallels of latitudes
 Besides the equator (0°), the North Pole (90°N) and the South Pole (90° S), there are
four important parallels of latitudes–
 Tropic of Cancer (23½° N) in the Northern Hemisphere.
 Tropic of Capricorn (23½° S) in the Southern Hemisphere.
 Arctic Circle at 66½° north of the equator.
 Antarctic Circle at 66½° south of the equator.
Heat zones of the earth
Torrid zone:-
 The mid-day sun is exactly overhead at least once a year on all latitudes in between the
Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
 This area, therefore, receives the maximum heat and is called the Torrid Zone.
Temperate zone:-
 The mid-day sun never shines overhead on any latitude beyond the Tropic of Cancer
and the Tropic of Capricorn.
  The angle of the sun’s rays goes on decreasing towards the poles.
 As such, the areas bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle in the
Northern Hemisphere, and the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle in the
Southern Hemisphere, have moderate temperatures.
 These are, therefore, called Temperate Zones.
Frigid Zone:-
 Areas lying between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole in the Northern Hemisphere
and the Antarctic Circle and the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere, are very cold.
 It is because here the sun does not rise much above the horizon. Therefore, its rays are
always slanting.
 These are, therefore, called Frigid Zones.
Longitudes:-
 Hyderabad (in Pakistan) and Allahabad (in India) are situated on the same
latitude (i.e.,25°25'N). In order to locate them precisely, we must find out how far
east or west these places from A line of reference running from the North Pole to
the South Pole
 A line of reference running from the North Pole to the South Pole. These lines of
references are called the meridians of longitude, and the distances between them are
measured in ‘degrees of longitude.’
 Each degree is further divided into minutes, and minutes into seconds.
 They are semi-circles and the distance between them decreases steadily polewards
until it becomes zero at the poles, where all the meridians meet.
Prime meridian
 Unlike parallels of latitude, all meridians are of equal length. Thus, it was difficult to
number the meridians.
 Hence, all countries decided that the count should begin from the meridian which
passed through Greenwich, where the British Royal Observatory is located.
 This meridian is called the Prime Meridian.
 Its value is 0° longitude and from it we count 180° eastward as well as 180° westward.
 The Prime Meridian divides the earth into two equal halves, the Eastern Hemisphere
and the Western Hemisphere.
 Therefore, the longitude of a place is followed by the letter E for the east and W for the
west.
 It is, however, interesting to note that 180° East and 180° West meridians are on the
same line.
Longitude and time
 As the earth rotates from west to east, those places east of Greenwich will be ahead of
Greenwich time and those to the west will be behind it.
 The rate of difference can be calculated as follows. The earth rotates 360° in about 24
hours, which means 15° an hour or 1° in four minutes.
 Thus, when it is 12 noon at Greenwich, the time at 15° east of Greenwich will be 15 × 4
= 60 minutes, i.e., 1 hour ahead of Greenwich time, which means 1 p.m. But at 15° west
of Greenwich, the time will be behind Greenwich time by one hour, i.e., it will be 11.00
a.m.
 Similarly, at 180°, it will be midnight when it is 12 noon at Greenwich.
Why do we have standard time?
 In India, for instance, there will be a difference of about 1 hour and 45 minutes in the
local times of Dwarka in Gujarat and Dibrugarh in Assam.
 It is, therefore, necessary to adopt the local time of some central meridian of a country
as the standard time for the country.
 In India, the longitude of 82½° E (82° 30 'E) is treated as the standard meridian. The
local time at this meridian is taken as the standard time for the whole country. It is
known as the Indian Standard Time (IST).
 India located east of Greenwich at 82°30'E is 5 hours and 30 minute ahead of GMT.
 Some countries have a great longitudinal extent and so they have adopted more than
one standard time. For example, in Russia, there are as many as eleven standard times.
 The earth has been divided into twenty-four time zones of one hour each. Each zone
thus covers 15° of longitude.