My Science School

Owing to its elevation, the Tibetan Plateau is known as the Roof of the World (Bam-i- Duniah). This region of Asia is known as High Asia, with an average elevation of 4511 metres above sea level, making the Tibetan Plateau the world's highest plateau.

It was formed and is still being formed due to the collision of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates- these plates started colliding about 70 million years ago! The Tibetan Plateau has a number of saline and freshwater glacial lakes, that is, there are about 1,500 large and small lakes with a total area of 24,183 square kilometres as on 2008.

It is also called the Third Pole due to its ice fields, which are the world's greatest freshwater resource other than the Polar Regions. This region gives rise to some of the most important rivers of Asia including the Brahmaputra, Indus, Ganges, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze, and Yellow river.

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Would you like to help people travel to exciting places? Then maybe a career in travel is for you! There are many different types of jobs in travel. Someday you may want to have a job like one of these:

Travel agents plan trips. They arrange airline flights and hotel rooms. Travel agents also arrange transport and sightseeing tours. They tell you when to catch a tour bus or how much the tickets will cost. They find out about fun things to do, places to see, and how to dress for the weather. They also provide maps and tour books to help you plan your trip.

With a computer terminal on one side and a phone on the other, airline reservation receptionists help people without a travel agent to choose the right flights. They help travellers to find flights that cost less or flights with no stops.

At hotels and motels, front-desk receptionists are responsible for collecting and giving out room keys. They also answer the phone and handle phone messages and mail for the guests.

Do you love food? Many fine chefs work in hotels, where they prepare fancy meals. Airline chefs prepare meals that are usually served on long flights.

Sometimes a travel career means working on water! If you enjoy boating, perhaps the job of cruise director is for you. Cruise ships are floating hotels. A cruise director plans fun activities on board the ship as well as on shore. For example, on the ship, people can take dance lessons or exercise classes, play board games, or watch a concert. On shore, people can shop, sight-see, or go to the beach. Chefs on cruise ships prepare delicious feasts for the passengers and get to travel the world at the same time!

Would you love to travel? Then perhaps you would like to be a flight attendant. Flight attendants serve food and drinks and help make people comfortable during a flight. They also help keep passengers safe in an emergency.

With lots of training, you could become an airline pilot. Pilots work out a plane's route and give the flight plan to the air-traffic controllers. They check the cockpit controls to make sure the plane is in good working order. Then they carry passengers safely where they want to go.

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There are many different kinds of maps and many different jobs for people who help create them. Let's take a look at some of the people who help make maps.

A person called a surveyor uses special instruments to measure distances, angles, and heights to work out where a place is and how big it is. Surveyors measure and record the positions of things and the shape of the earth's surface.

Some people photograph the land from an aeroplane. The aerial photographs are used by people called photogrammetrists to measure land areas, lakes, and other features of the earth. The photographs show wide areas of land and can give much more information than a person could gather while on the ground.

Cartographers use information from surveyors and photogrammetrists to make maps. Many cartographers use computers to draw an actual map. They add symbols and colours to help people understand all of the different kinds of information on a map.

A geographer studies how people and animals relate to the land. Some geographers study the places where people live. Others study the resources people use, such as water, land, and oil. Still others study rivers, mountains, and oceans. They put all of the information they find on maps to show other people.

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People have used maps for thousands of years. The earliest maps probably were simply scratches in the dirt. Early people made these scratches to show where to find water, food, or their caves. Later, people used nearby materials to make maps. Ancient Chinese people carved maps of their empire onto bamboo or stone or painted them on rolls of silk. Certain people of the Pacific Islands mapped out their region with palm sticks and shells. For a long time, in the Middle Ages, people thought the earth was flat. They believed you could fall off the edge of the world if you sailed too far out to sea. Explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan changed these ideas. They collected information about countries outside Europe for European mapmakers.

When hot-air balloons were invented in the 1780's and aeroplanes in the 1900's, people finally got a bird's-eye view of the world. This helped them to make better maps.

Today, we use computers and photographs taken from aeroplanes and satellites to make maps of the world. We can even make maps for areas that nobody can get to.

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Look at a globe or a map of the world, Have you ever wondered why they have so many lines? There are no lines on the earth, so why are there lines on globes and maps?

The lines help people find places. The lines are something like city streets. When two friends meet at a corner, they are meeting where two streets cross. On a globe or map, the east-west lines cross the north-south lines. Every place can be found on a map by looking near where two of the lines cross.

The east-west lines measure how far north or how far south a place is from the equator. This measurement is called latitude. Because the lines are parallel-always the same distance apart they are called parallels of latitude. Latitude is measured in units called degrees. The symbol ° after each number is a degree sign. Latitude is always given as so many degrees north or south of the equator. The equator is 0° latitude.

The north-south lines measure distance east and west, or longitude. These lines are called meridians. A line called the prime meridian is 0° longitude. All other meridians are measured as so many degrees east or west of this line.

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Maps and globes have all kinds of signs and symbols. Often they have certain lines, too. Nearly every map and globe of the world has one very important line. It's called the equator. An imaginary line called the equator lies around the middle of the earth. The equator divides the earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres, or halves. The word hemisphere means "half of a sphere or ball".

North of the equator is an imaginary line called the Tropic of Cancer. South of the equator is another line called the Tropic of Capricorn. Both lines are named after groups of stars. The areas between the equator and these two lines are called the tropics. Once a year the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer. That marks the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Once a year, the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. That marks the first day of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

When it is summer where you live, where is it winter? To find out, look at a globe. The Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere are on opposite sides of the equator. For this reason, when it is the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. And when it is the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the first day of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

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The earth looks like a big, blue marble to astronauts in outer space. It's easy for them to see the round shape of the earth because they are so far away from it. If you want to see the whole earth at one time, you might look at a map. But mapmakers must squeeze and stretch parts of the world so that they can draw them on a flat map. That means a flat map does not show the true shape of the earth. A globe is a round model of the earth. Globes show the size, shape, and location of land and oceans. Many globes show the boundaries of different countries. Some globes show how the mountains, hills, valleys, and oceans would appear from the sky.

Do you know why most globes are tilted on their stands? It is because the earth really is tilted. It spins at a tilt as it travels around the sun. With a globe, you see part of the earth at one time. To see places on the other side, you just turn the globe.

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If you are standing in your front garden, how do you know which way is east? If it's a sunny early morning, you can easily tell. The sun rises in the east, so you just have to face the direction of the rising sun. But what if it is cloudy outside?

Even on a cloudy day, a good way to tell direction is with a compass. A simple compass has a magnetized needle that's mounted so that it can turn freely. No matter which way you face or turn the compass, the needle will continue pointing north.

How does a compass tell which way is north? The needle of a compass is a magnet. It points north because it is pulled by a larger magnet-the earth. One end of the earth's magnet is near the North Pole, and the other end is near the South Pole. The north-seeking end of a magnetic needle always points towards the earth's north magnetic pole.

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On are made small enough to fit on paper. The scale of a map is the difference between the map size and the real size. When a map is drawn to scale, everything is made smaller by the same amount. A large-scale map shows a small area with lots of details. It is what you would see if you were looking down on an area from too close. The motorways, streets, parks, and buildings would look large.

A small-scale map shows a large area with not many details. It is what you would see if you were looking down on an area from very far away. You might see main roads, large towns, and rivers or mountains. The roads and towns would look small.

Map projections are a mathematical model for converting locations on the earth's surface from spherical to planar coordinates, allowing flat maps to depict three-dimensional features. Some map projections preserve the integrity of shape, others preserve accuracy of area, distance or direction. All map projections distort shape, area, distance or direction to some extent.

On large scale maps, such as street maps, the distortion caused by the map projection being used may be negligible because your map will typically cover only a small part of the Earth's surface.

On smaller scale maps, such as regional and world maps, where a small distance on the map may represent a considerable distance on the Earth, this distortion may have a bigger impact, especially if the application involves comparison of the shape, area or distance of different features. In these cases, knowledge of the characteristics of the map projection you are using becomes more important.

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If you are using a map to get to your friend's house, you can work out how far you have to travel. First, you have to learn something about distance. The word distance means the space between things. A map has to show distance much smaller than it actually is. So, at the top or bottom of most maps, you will see what looks like a ruler. This is called the map scale. The scale shows what the distance on a map equals in real distance.

The scale shown on the previous page is a straight line on which distances are marked. Each mark stands for a certain number of miles or kilometres. To find the real distance between two places, you first measure the distance between them on the map. To do this, line up the two places on the edge of a piece of paper. Make a mark for each place. Then, move the paper down to the scale. Line up one mark with the 0 on the scale. Then read the number that lines up with the other mark.

To measure distance on a winding road on a map, place a string along the route you want to take. Let the string curve along the curves of the road. Then straighten the string and measure its length on the map scale. The number you get will be the total distance.

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Map symbols stand for real things on the surface of the earth. The map legend shows what the symbols mean. The colours help, too, Motorways are usually shown as red or black lines. The wider the line, the bigger the motorway. Crossed black lines stand for railway tracks, and a small black dot stands for a city. A star or dot inside a circle means a capital city. To find an airport, look for a tiny aeroplane on the map

Water is shown in blue, so squiggly blue lines show rivers. Sometimes colour is used to show the height of the land. Low land may be green. High mountains may be dark brown.

The next time you see a map, take a close look at it. You'll be surprised to find how much a small map can show.

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Map laps can give you lots of information about exciting places, if you know how to read them. To read a map, you have to understand "map language". Map language is made up of names, numbers, colours, shapes, lines, and tiny pictures called symbols. These names, numbers, and symbols stand for the things you might look for on a map, such as cities, rivers, or roads. Most maps also have a map legend. A map legend explains what the symbols and colours on a map mean. An important word in map language is direction. The most important directions to know are north, south, east, and west. North is the direction that leads to the North Pole. South is the opposite. It faces the South Pole. East is where the sun rises and west is where the sun sets.

When maps are printed, the direction north is usually towards the top of the paper, and south is at the bottom. On these maps, east is at the right edge of the map, and west is at the left edge. But sometimes, north is not at the top of the map. How do you know if it is or isn't? Often a pointer on the map tells you which direction is north.

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Your friend wants to visit you, but does not know how to get to your house. You want to help her find it. You could tell her your street address, but that wouldn't help if she didn't know where the street was. You might give her a picture of your house. That would tell her what your house looked like, but it wouldn't show her how to find it. Well, how can you help her? You could draw a map!

It's the job of a mapmaker, or cartographer, to put all of this information into a format that people can understand and learn from. Exactly what a person can learn depends on the type of map. Most maps start with an outline of a location, like a piece of land or a body of water. Then, they provide information about the location's attributes. Different maps incorporate different attributes. For example:

Physical maps illustrate landforms like mountains, deserts and lakes. With a physical map, you can get a basic sense of what all or part of the planet looks like and what its physical features are. Physical maps usually show differences in elevation through hypsometric tints, or variations in color. Topographic maps, on the other hand, illustrate the land's shape and elevation using contour lines.

Political maps display cultural information about countries, their borders and their major cities. Most political maps also include some physical features, like oceans, rivers and large lakes. You can check out political maps of the world at our interactive atlas.

Thematic maps add information on a specific theme, or subject. Examples of common themes are population density, land use, natural resources, gross domestic product (GDP) and climate. Thematic maps can also show extremely specialized information, such as the availability of internet access in different parts of the world.

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How can you find the elephants at the zoo? How did pirates find buried treasure? How can you find the ice-cream store in a huge mall? How can you help your friends find their way to your house?

How can you find your way around a strange city?

It's easy. Use a map! Maps are important for anyone who is travelling or exploring and for people who are just curious about the world. They help you find your way around strange places, and they are great fun to use-once you know how!

A map is a kind of picture of Earth. Maps can show the whole Earth, or just parts of it. There are maps of the world, maps of countries, maps of cities, and maps of neighbourhoods. There are also maps of the moon, maps of the land under the oceans, maps of almost anywhere you can think of. Zoos, national parks, shopping, and other centres often have maps to help people find their way around. Even though maps can show all of these things, some are still small enough to fit in your pocket or backpack! The earth has tall mountains, deep valleys, winding rivers, and vast oceans, yet maps make the earth look flat. They are drawn as if you are high up, looking straight down on the land. By looking at a map, you can see what lies beyond a forest or on the other side of a mountain. Looking at a map also tells you whether something is north, south, east, or west of other areas on the map. When you are trying to find a place, such as your friend's house on the other side of town or toilets in the shopping centre, you have to know in which direction to walk.

There are many kinds of maps. A map that shows how rough or smooth the land is called a physical or terrain map. It uses colour to show mountains, rivers, plains, valleys, and other features.

A road map shows streets, roads, and motorways. Some road maps show only the main roads, but others show small roads, too.

A product map shows all the things that are made and grown in an area. A population map shows how many people live in different parts of a country. A weather map shows the weather in an area. A historical map shows the world as it was long ago, or how people thought the world looked at that time.

A chart is a kind of map used by sailors and aeroplane pilots. It shows features of the oceans and skies.

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Superman may be able to leap over tall buildings in a single bound, but most people are amazed when they see them from the ground. Skyscrapers first appeared during the late 1800’s in Chicago and New York, U.S.A. Builders could fit more offices in one area by building upward. The 10-storey Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built from 1884 to 1885, was the first skyscraper with a metal frame.

In the 1940’s and 1950’s, German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became famous for his glass and steel skyscrapers. His most famous structure in the Seagram Building in New York City, U.S.A. This skyscraper has bronze walls and bronze-coloured windows.

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