There are five major oceans on the earth. According to decreasing order of size they are - i) the Pacific Ocean, ii) the Atlantic Ocean, iii) the Indian Ocean, iv) the Antarctic Ocean and v) the Arctic Ocean.
Our Earth is divided into seven continents. In decreasing order of size, they are i) Asia, ii) Africa, iii) North America, iv) South America, v) Antarctica, vi) Europe and vii) Australia.
A map is a true geographical representation of the Earth on the flat Surface. It may show the whole Earth or a part of it. There are mainly two types of maps-physical maps and political maps.
An atlas is a set of maps in the form of a book. It was first published by a flemish (Dutch) map maker named Gerardus Mesicator.
There are four main directions. They are - 1) East iⅱ) West iii) North and iv) South.
There are four sub-directions that lies between the main directions. They are-
i) North-East (NE), ⅱ) North-West (NW), iii) South-East (SE) and iv) South-West (sw).
We use a globe to see the correct location of various continents and oceans, islands, their shape and size etc.
Limitations of globe -Maps provide us variety of information about the Earth as it is easy to carry anywhere. It shows the physical features, political divisions, soil, climatic zones, Location of streets and buildings etc.
Political maps : Political maps Show boundaries of countries and states, location of major towns and cities, roads and water bodies.
Physical maps: Physical maps show the physical features of a region such as rivers, mountains, plateaus, deserts, forests etc.
Directions are usually shown with the help of an arrow drawn on the upper corner of the map. This arrow points to the North and it has the letter 'N' Written above it. From this point all the other directions-both main and sub-directions can be derived.
A map scale is the ratio of the distance between two places on a map, to the actual distance between two places on the ground.
The scale of a map is used to find out the actual distance between places shown on a map.