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Class 12 Transport and Communication: cheat sheet
CBSE Social Science. How the world moves people, goods and messages: roads, trans-continental railways, sea routes and canals, inland waterways, air routes, pipelines, satellites and cyberspace.
Key ideas
- Each mode suits different loads: roads for short trips and door delivery, railways for bulky goods over land, ships for freight between continents, airways for light valuable goods, pipelines for fluids.
- A transport network joins places (nodes) by routes (links).
- Trans-continental railways cross whole continents, like the Trans-Siberian (St Petersburg to Vladivostok) and Trans-Canadian (Halifax to Vancouver).
- The Northern Atlantic route is the busiest sea route; the Suez Canal links the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the Panama Canal the Atlantic and Pacific.
- The Rhine is the world’s busiest inland waterway; the Great Lakes–St Lawrence Seaway takes ships deep into North America.
- Satellites and cyberspace make communication instant and equally cheap over any distance.
Remember
| Hours saved by a canal | distance saved ÷ speed (km/h) |
| Days saved | distance saved ÷ km sailed per day |
| Panama Canal | cuts New York–San Francisco by about 13,000 km; has six locks |
| Network length | area × density (e.g. 0.65 km of highway per sq km), or area ÷ sq km per km of track |
| Key dates | first public railway, Stockton–Darlington, 1825; Suez Canal 1869; Aryabhata 1975 |
| Pipelines | Big Inch carries petroleum; New Zealand pipes milk |
Watch out
- Saying the Suez Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific (that is Panama).
- Sending bulky, cheap goods by air.
- Dividing distance by days when the speed is given per hour.
Worked example
Suppose New York to San Francisco by sea around South America is 28,000 km. The Panama Canal cuts about 13,000 km. What is the new distance, and how many days are saved by a ship sailing 650 km a day?
Working: 28,000 − 13,000; 13,000 ÷ 650
Answer: 15,000 km; 20 days
Practise Transport and Communication
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