The Question Book

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1879 Excerpt: ... A N S W E R S TO Questions on Geography. 1. From the two words geo (earth) and graphy (description). 2. Three: Mathematical, Physical and Political. 3. It treats of the form, magnitude, and motions of the earth, and of the various imaginary lines on the surface. 4. It treats of the solid and fluid parts of the earth's surface, the atmosphere, and all animal and vegetable life. 5. It treats of the various countries on the earth's surface; the people, customs, religion, and government. 6. A sphere flattened at the ends. 7. By the revolution of the earth while in a plastic condition. 8. About twenty-six miles, the diameter at the equator being 7,925 miles. 9. An imaginary line on which it performs its daily revolutions; its poles are the points where its axis meets the surface. 10. Two: diurnal and annual. The diurnal is its motion from west to east; its annual is its revolution around the sun. 11. The revolution of the earth on its axis. _12. The revolution of the earth around the sun. 13. The course it takes in its annual motion; its estimated length is about 600,000,000 miles. 14. About 68,000 miles an hour. 15. It is due to the direction of the sun's rays, and Is on the same principle that morn and eve are cooler than mid-day. 16. Belts, or divisions of the earth, bounded by the tropic and polar circles, of which there are five--two frigid, two temperate, and one torrid. The north frigid lies between the pole and Arctic Circle, and is 23 in width; the north temperate lies between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer, and is 43 in width; the torrid lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and extends 232 north and south of the equator; the south temperate is of the same size as the north, and lies between the Tropic of Capricorn ...