Our Big Round World

[Music] foreign it's a fine spring morning in a little town near new york the children are on their way to school there's time for them to play before school while they're playing how would you like to take a fast trip around the world let's pretend that our plane can go a million miles an hour here we go on this globe we can trace our flight our special plane will take us quickly across the ocean to the land of spain let's land in spain and look around well look there are children going home from school it must be a different time of day in spain let's hurry on and see if there are different times all around the world look it's getting dark we'll land for a minute in persia or iran it's early evening here the shepherds have gathered in their flock as we fly on across asia it is night we'll stop again at tokyo japan it's the middle of the night here there are only a few cars and trucks about now to hurry on across the great wide pacific ocean back to america we'll pause in california to watch the sunrise it's going to be a beautiful morning isn't it but let's get back to new york we've traveled all the way around the world yet we've been gone only a few minutes here where we started school hasn't even begun yet when we took our trip we found that on one side of the world it was bright daylight and on the other side it was dark night let's see if we can understand this all our daylight on earth comes from the sun light from the sun falls on the side of the earth that is turned toward the sun here on this side of the earth it is daytime on the other side it is dark so we say that it is night but we must remember that the earth turns when we look at the earth from a position above the north pole we can see that people everywhere on the earth spend part of the time in daylight and as their part of the earth turns away from the sun they spend part of the time in the darkness of night this is why we can stay in any one place on earth and see both day and night as the earth turns us first toward the sun then away from it day and night the earth turns toward the east if you face toward the rising sun you are facing east and west is behind you the big round world keeps turning the great bodies of land called continents turn toward the sun one after another and the still greater bodies of water called oceans have their day and night it takes 24 hours for the earth to turn once different kind of trip we'll start near the north pole on a spring day here the climate is cold and snowy even though the sun is shining now we'll fly south so quickly it will stay the same time of day in new york we find that the weather is pleasant the air is cool but the sun is warm from new york we hurry farther south in cuba it is very warm and the workers are harvesting sugar sugarcane still farther south along the amazon river in brazil we find a hot steaming jungle it seems the farther south we go the warmer it gets what will happen if we go farther our next stop is in southern brazil why it is not so hot here it's warm and sunny but there's a pleasant breeze now we'll go on south to see what happens to the climate next when we stop near the south pole we look out on freezing cold and snow if we made a trip around the other side of the world we'd find again that it gets warmer and warmer as we come near the middle of the earth and then cooler and cooler as we go on toward the poles do you know why it's because the sun does not warm the earth evenly it's warmest around the middle of the earth where the sun seems to be straight overhead so an object placed near the middle of our globe casts almost no shadow but as we look toward one of the poles of the earth we can see that the sun's rays come in at more and more of a slant these slanting rays don't warm the earth as much that is why it is colder near the poles on globes of the earth we draw a line all the way around halfway between the poles this line is called the equator along the equator are lands with very hot climates in south america in africa in the east indies let's draw two more lines on our globe these lines are the same distance north and south of the equator they are called the north tropic and the south tropic near these lines we find tropical warm climates where there is enough rainfall as in cuba we find great plantations where tropical crops are grown where there is little rain as in north africa few plants can grow and we find hot barren deserts there are two more important lines to notice these lines are near the poles they are called the arctic circle and the antarctic circle near these lines we find cold climates where there is snow all year round most of us live in what are called the middle latitude regions of the earth in these regions we have four seasons we have pleasant mild springs that melt the snow and allow plants to grow we have warm summers long enough for many crops to grow changes to autumn with its cooler weather and then winter begins with its brisk cold do you know why we have these seasons in the middle latitude could you use a globe to find out you'll often find other lines around the globe from east to west that help us find regions of various climates you'll also find lines from north to south that help us tell the time of day or night as we go around the world would you like to take a trip around the world why not take a make-believe trip now see how much you can learn from the globe about the real world we live on [Music] you