The reference point

The teacher plans a visit to a nearby garden and asks the children to go there straight from home. The friends argue: is the garden closer than the school, or farther?

Along one road the places come in this order: bus stand, school, Deepa's house, Anish's house, Hardeep's house, Tasneem's house, Padma's house, garden. Tasneem and Padma say the garden is closer. Deepa and Anish say the school is closer. Hardeep thinks both are about the same distance away.

Who is right? All of them! Each child measures from their own house. If they had all measured from the same place, say the bus stand, they would have agreed.

The fixed object or point from which we state a distance is called the reference point. When you get off a train and ask, "How far is the temple from the station?", the station is your reference point. If you go to the station from home, and your father goes there from his office, you will say different distances for the same station, because your reference points are different.

Later, the children mark a Kabaddi court with chuna (limestone powder). Deepa says they must first choose a point on the ground to measure from: their reference point.

Padma travels by bus to her grandparents in Delhi. A kilometre stone says 'Delhi 70 km'; further on, another says 'Delhi 60 km'. The stones measure from Delhi, so Delhi is the reference point. The number is getting smaller, so she is getting closer to Delhi.