180° Meridian is supposed to pass pacific ocean but makes short detours in order to avoid land masses is known as International date line.

Define The Following:

1. Unique planet: The Earth is called a Unique planet because of its features. It is the only planet that supports life, that is why it is called “Living Planet”. The Earth is the home of all forms of life like plants, animals and human beings because of its suitable distance from the Sun, range of temperature, life supporting gases, atmosphere, water cycle etc.,

2. Size of the Earth: The Earth is the fifth largest planet in the Sun’s family. The diameter of the Earth is approximately 4 times greater than the Moon and it is around 107 times less than that of the Sun. The total geographical area of the Earth is 51 Omillion sq.kms

3. Geoid: The Earth’s shape is often described as Geoid, which literally means ‘Earth shaped’, or ‘Oblate spheroid’. The Earth is flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator. The Equatorial diameter of the Earth is 12756 kms and the Polar diameter is 12714 kms Equatorial circumference40,076 kms and Polar circumference-40,008 kms. The difference of 42 kms in diameter is the proof for regarding the Geoid shape of the Earth.

4. Continents: The land bodies of the Earth are known as Continents. There are seven continents, namely Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia. The continents are land masses of large size. Asia is the largest continent in the world while Australia is the smallest continent in the world.

5. Prime Meridian: Line of longitude are called Meridians (meri-mid and dian -day) because all places along the same meridian of longitude experience noon or midday at the same time.The meridian passing through Greenwich (England) has been chosen as Prime Meridain. It is marked as 0° longitude.

6. Indian Standard Time: In India, 82 1/2° East longitude is considered as the Standard Meridian of the country. It passes through Allahabad of Uttar Pradesh. The time based on this Meridian is called the Indian Standard Time (1 ST). It is 5 hours and 30 Minutes ahead of G.M.T.