Exploring locations - the seven continents

Oh hello! I’m just working out where I am by using this world, er…globe to give it its proper name.

A globe is a model of planet Earth, showing how it looks from space. This one shows all the countries of the world, almost 200, including the UK.

It shows all seven continents, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Oceania and Antarctica. Although I love my globe, it’s a bit awkward to carry around.

Instead, it’s much easier to use a map or a book of maps called an atlas. An atlas has pictures of the same places as the globe but they are spread out over the pages, which allows you to see the world in more detail.

This does have its drawbacks, as the Earth is round, but pages are flat, so what we see on a map is slightly distorted.Globes and maps are how we’ve seen the world for hundreds of years.

They used to be hand-drawn to scale, from careful measurements of the distances and angles between landmarks.

But these days you can use apps on your computer or tablet. They’re even more detailed because they use photos taken by satellites and drones. The photos are put together like a huge jigsaw puzzle, which means we can view whole continents or even people’s back gardens.

However you look at the world, whether it’s with a globe, atlas or computer, it will always be fascinating and beautiful.I’m ok! I’m ok!