Archive for the 'Geography' Category
Planet Earth World Globe by National Geographic
Author: globeguy
Have you ever wanted to actually see how Alaska experiences complete days in darkness or daylight? Have you ever wondered why the International Dateline has such significance in the business world? The National Geographic Planet Earth world globe can answer these questions and many more.
With the globe light off the globe shows the political map of the world. When the light is on, it shows the physical features of the world - but that’s not all. This unique educational tool also shows day and nighttime for any time, date, and location in the world throughout the four seasons. It can be manually adjusted both forward and backward to see past, present, and future hours of daylight and darkness for easy demonstration and understanding. A pinpoint light shows the actual location of the sun throughout the year. Unique “twilight rings” depict the three zones of dawn and dusk. The superb design and engineering, combined with the expert cartography of National Geographic creates a learning tool that is fun and easy to use.
Information courtesy of National Geographic
Learning about where animals live on our planet
Author: globeguy
Unique 11″ world globe educates as it entertains. Colorful clear images of 263 animals are shown in their natural habitat. When illuminated, the 11″ model shows ocean animals. The world globe comes with an animal encyclopedia which contains interesting facts on each animal.
About the earth
Author: globeguy
Diameter: 12,753 km (7,926 miles)
Mass: 5.98×10^24 kilograms (6.5e21 tons)
Surface Gravity: 9.78 m/s^2
Density: 5,515 kg/m^3
Minimum Distance from Sun: 146 million km (91 million miles)
Maximum Distance from Sun: 152 million km (94.5 million miles)
Tilt of Axis: 23 degrees 27″
Rotation Period with respect to Sun (Length of Day): 24 hrs
Rotation Period with respect to stars (Sidereal Day): 23 hrs 56 min
Revolution Period about the Sun (Length of a Year): 365 days 5 hrs
Temperature: -89 degrees C to 57.7 degrees C (-128 degrees F to 136 degrees F)
Keeping the world in perspective with the world globe.
Author: globeguy
In using a flat surface map of the earth for research, we must remember it limits our perspective of the true view of how the earth looks as to where we are going or what we are doing.
Do we have the tendency to get out our atlas, get on the internet, or do we get the world globe out that should be in our home? Maybe we should do all three. Acccording to F. WEBSTER McBRYDE, Department of Geography at Ohio State University, if we limit ourselves to just the flat surface map, atlas or internet, we do not get an accurate perspective of the world.
In his article “A MAP OF THE WORLD IN PERSPECTIVE1“
“In representing the earth’s spherical surface upon a plane, any map projection must inevitably involve some distortion, which increases with the size of the area included. A world projection, developing the grid of the entire earth, therefore, presents maximum difficulty in overcoming distortions. The principal properties which may be preserved on the map, as they are on the earth, may be listed as follows: (1) equivalence, or true relative sizes of areas; (2) conformality or true angles formed by intersecting lines (compass directions, if grid lines are straight, as on the Mercator projection); (3) true shapes of areas; (4) equidistance, or true scale, along certain lines; (5) continuity of surface, with the grid unbroken. Preservation of all of these at once is possible only on the globe. On a flat surface one or several of the properties may be kept, but there is always a sacrifice.”
{1}The figurative rather than literal interpretation of this word is intended, for obviously the entire earth surface cannot be shown in true perspective. The orthographic hemispherical projection is the only true perspective representation.
Therefore can we say we don’t need a globe in our home for study or the world globe is ”no longer needed in the classroom”?
Geography Proves Problematic for American Students
Author: SpinningGlobeIt’s no secret that American students are not known for their geographic prowess. In fact, one particularly grim found that 20% of young Americans could not even find the United States on a world map.
But instead of banding together to fix the problem, educators seem to be split on the issue. Some people feel that locating a country on a map is unimportant when compared to understanding its political and social history. Others agree the broader context is important but feel the details should be addressed as well.
While the debate continues, teachers do agree that new tactics need to be taken. It’s a tall order, but geography has to be made “fun.” So far, educators have come up with several promising ideas, including using inflatable globes as well as ornate and decorative atlases in the classroom. This makes the world layout both tactile and visually appealing.