What do you think the earth looks like? Make a drawing of the earth in your notebook. On your drawing show where you What is our earth really like? Uzaira and Shahmir are playing with the globe. While they play they are talking to each other. Uzaira: Do you know that Sunita Williams is visiting our school tomorrow? I have heard that she has spent more than six months in space. Shahmir: (looking at the globe) Hmm... look here is America, Africa. Hey, where is space? Uzaira: The sky, stars, sun and moon, they are all in space. Shahmir: Yes, I know. Sunita Williams went in a spaceship. I saw on TV that she could see the earth from there. Uzaira: Yes, from there the earth looked like this globe. Shahmir: If our earth looks like this globe, then where are we? (Uzaira takes a pen and places it on the globe.) Uzaira : Here we are. This is India. Shahmir: If we were here like this, we would all fall off. I think we must be inside the globe. Uzaira: If we are inside, then where is the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars? We must be on the globe. And all the seas and oceans must also be on the globe. Shahmir: (pointing towards the lower part of the globe) You mean to say that no one stays here? Uzaira: People live here too. Brazil and Argentina are here. Shahmir: Are the people there standing upside down? Why don't these people fall off? Uzaira: Yes, it looks strange, isn’t it? And this blue part must be the sea. Why doesn’t the sea water fall off? What do you think? • If the earth is round like a globe, how is it that we do not fall off? • Do the people in Argentina stand upside down? Talking with Sunita When Sunita Williams came to India, thousands of children like Uzaira and Shahmir got a chance to meet her. Sunita says that her friend Kalpana Chawla wanted to come to India and meet children. She came to India to fulfil Kalpana’s dream. Sunita’s experiences of living in space! ✡ We could not sit at one place. We kept floating in the spaceship from one end to another. ✡ Water too doesn’t stay at one place. It floats around as blobs. To wash our face or hands we had to catch these blobs and wet paper with them. ✡ We ate very differently there. The real fun was when all of us would float into the dining area of the spaceship and catch the floating food packets! ✡ In space there was no need to use a comb. My hair kept standing all the time! ✡ Not being able to walk, we had to get used to floating around. We had to learn to do simple things differently. To stay at one place, we had to strap ourselves there. Papers also had to be stuck to the wall of the spaceship. It was a lot of fun living in space but it was also difficult. Look at the photographs and write • Can you think why Sunita’s hair was standing? • Look at Sunita’s photographs and the dates written on each of them. Write what all is happening and when? Sunita in Space 101 Isn’t it amazing? On the earth when we throw something up, it comes down. When we throw a ball up in air, it falls back. We are able to catch it. On the earth, we don’t keep floating around. When we fill a glass or bucket with water, it stays there. It doesn’t float around in blobs as Sunita Williams says. It is something special about the earth that makes this happen! The earth pulls everything towards itself. Sunita Williams went 360 kilometres away from the earth, in the spaceship. Think how far this would be! Find out which town or city is located about 360 kilometres away from where you live. This is how far Sunita Williams went away from the earth. -Can you now say why Sunita’s hair kept standing? -Think why water flows downwards on any slope. On mountains too water flows downwards, not upwards. Magic 1 – A tiny paper races a coin Take a 5 rupee coin and a small piece of paper. The paper should be about one-fourth the size of the coin. 1. Hold the coin in one hand and the paper in the other. Drop them at the same time. What happened? 2. Now place the tiny paper on the coin and drop them. What happened this time? Surprised! 1 Magic 2 – A mouse lifts an elephant! To play this you will need a small stone, a bigger stone (lemon-sized), a thick roll of paper (which can be made with layers of papers), mouse and an elephant made of paper. -Take a string about 2 feet long. -At one end of the string tie the small stone. Stick or tie the mouse to the stone. -Put the string into the roll of paper. -At the other end of the string tie the bigger stone and stick the elephant. -Hold the roll of paper and move your hand to rotate the small stone. Who is pulling whom? You will be surprised! The mouse lifts the elephant! How did this magic happen? 2 Where are the lines, really! Sunita describes her view of the earth from the spaceship: “The earth looks so beautiful and amazing. We could watch it for hours, from the window of the spaceship. We could clearly see the curved shape of the earth.” 104 Looking Around Look at this photograph of the earth, taken from a spaceship. From such photographs today we know what the earth looks like. But thousands of years ago, people could only imagine what the earth looked like. Scientists tried hard to find out – how big is the earth, how does it go around? Look at this photograph and tell • Can you see India? • Can you recognise any other place? • Where is the sea? • Do you find anything similar between the globe and this picture of the earth? In what ways are they different? • Do you think Sunita could make out Pakistan, Nepal and Burma separately, when she saw the earth from space? (Uzaira and Shahmir are looking at different countries on the globe.) Uzaira: See, there are lines between the different countries on this globe. Are such lines also there on the earth? Shahmir: There must be. They are there on the map of India in this book. See, there are lines between the different states too. Uzaira: If we go from Delhi to Rajasthan, would we find such lines made on the ground? Look at the map given in this book and tell -Can you find the state in which you live? Write its name on the map. -Which are the states next to the state you live in? -Have you been to any other state? -Shahmir thinks that there are lines drawn on the ground between the states. What do you think? When Sunita saw the earth from space she found the earth very beautiful. Many thoughts came to her mind. As she describes it, “From so far away, one can only make out the land and the sea. One cannot see the different countries. Division into countries has been done by us. All the lines on the maps are made by us, they are in our minds. I wish we all think about this. Where are the lines, really?” Look at the Sky Shahmir: (He closes one eye and moves the coin back and forth while looking at the moon.) Look, I can hide the moon behind this coin. Uzaira: Wow! Imagine hiding such a big moon behind such a small coin. • Why don’t you try to do the same with a coin? How many centimetres away from the eye did you keep the coin to hide the moon? Think • Do you think the moon is flat like the coin or round like a ball? Have you ever looked carefully at the sky at night? Don’t the twinkling stars look magical! And sometimes the moon is silvery and bright, while sometimes it is nowhere to be seen in the black sky. 106 Looking Around • Look at the moon tonight and draw what it looks like. Look and draw again after one week, and then after 15 days. Today’s Date Date after a week Date after 15 days Find out • When is the next full moon? At what time will the moon rise on this day? What does the moon look like on this day? Draw it. • What are the festivals related to the moon? • At night look at the sky carefully for 5 minutes. – What could you see? – Did you see anything moving in the sky? What do you think it could be? A star or a shooting star or a satellite (satellites are used for the TV, telephones and for weather reports). Find out more about this. Look at the table and tell Given below are the times at which the moon rises and sets in Delhi (on the given days). Date Time of moonrise (hours : minutes) Time of moonset (hours : minutes) 28-10-2007 19:16 08:50 29-10-2007 30-10-2007 31-10-2007 20:17 21:22 22:29 10:03 11:08 12:03 • On 28 October the moon came out at ___ minutes past ___ o’clock. • On 29 October the moon came out at ___ minutes past ___ o’clock. • On 29 October there was a difference of ___ hours and ___ minutes in the time of the moon rise (as compared to 28 October). • If you saw the moon rising at 7 pm today, would you see it at the same time tomorrow? • On 31 October the time of setting of the moon is given as 12:03. Have you ever seen the moon at 12 in the afternoon? Why don’t we easily see the moon or stars during the day? The poet is also raising such questions in this poem. An interesting photograph! A spaceship went to the moon. This photograph of the earth was clicked from the surface of the moon. See how the earth is looking. Can you see the surface of the moon? Do you have some questions after looking at this picture? Write down those questions and discuss them in the class.