MAPS

What’s a Map?
A map is something that shows the whole or a part of some area. Maps are often flat, but globes are maps that show the whole earth. There are many types of maps. Maps can also show what's out in space, or what is inside a space as small as a cell in our bodies. In their simplest form, maps show how things relate to each other in a space. People have been making maps for thousands of years. People who make Maps are called Cartographers.

Orientation of maps
The term orientation refers to the relationship between directions on a map and compass directions. Most Maps are drawn with North on the Top.

Types of Maps.
Maps of the world or large areas are often either 'political' or 'physical'. The purpose of the political map is to show territorial borders; the purpose of the physical is to show features of geography such as mountains, soil type or land use. Maps can be thematic too, to show rainfall for example.
An atlas is a collection of maps, typically of Earth or a region of Earth,

Location on Earth
The earth is effectively a sphere, so how do we describe where a point is on its surface?
The most common way to locate points on the surface of the Earth is by standard, geographic coordinates called latitude and longitude. These coordinates values are measured in degrees, minutes and seconds.

Latitude, and the Equator
We can imagine the Earth as a sphere, with an axis around which it spins. The ends of the axis are the North and South Poles. The Equator is a line around the earth, an equal distance from both poles. The Equator is also the latitude line given the value of 0 degrees.
A line connecting all the points with the same latitude value is called a line of latitude. lines of latitude are parallel to the Equator, and they are sometimes also referred to as parallels. Parallels are equally spaced. There are 90 degrees of latitude going north from the Equator, and the North Pole is at 90 degrees N. There are 90 degrees to the south of the Equator, and the South Pole is at 90 degrees S.

Longitudes, and the Prime Meridian
Lines of longitude, called meridians, run perpendicular to lines of latitude, and all pass through both poles. Each longitude line is part of a great circle. There is no obvious 0-degree point for longitude, as there is for latitude. Throughout history many different starting points have been used to measure longitude. By international agreement, the meridian line through Greenwich, England, is currently given the value of 0 degrees of longitude; this meridian is referred to as the Prime Meridian. Longitude values indicate the distance between the Prime Meridian and points east or west of it on the surface of the Earth.


Do You Know?
All places on the same meridian would experience noon (or any other time of th day) at the same time. When we want to say the time is 10:00 in the morning, we say 10:00 am. What does am (and pm) stand for?? am means ante-meridian (before noon) and pm means post-meridian (after noon).


Location of DELHI, INDIA 28 40 N 77 14 E