NCERT Solutions for Class 5th Maths Chapter 15 A bar graph made from paper strips — Whose Index Finger is Longer?
Book page 184–185 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Cut long paper strips from waste paper. Give one strip (each of the same width) to each of your friends. Now, put the paper strip on your index finger and tear off the extra strip extending above your fingers. Paste these paper strips along the horizontal line in the given bar graph.Page 185 — the blank bar graph. The scale is 1 cm for each unit on the upright line.
Answer
This activity turns real fingers into a real bar graph. The strips are the bars.
Cut the strips first. Cut five or six strips from an old newspaper, all of the same width — about 1 cm wide is good.
Give one strip to each friend. Take one for yourself.
Lay the strip along your index finger. The bottom end of the strip sits where the finger joins the palm, at the lowest knuckle line.
Tear off the extra. Tear the strip exactly at your fingertip. What is left is as long as your index finger.
Write the name on each strip at once, or you will forget whose is whose.
Paste the strips standing up on the base line of the graph, one in each labelled box. Put the bottom edge of every strip exactly on the line — otherwise the heights cannot be compared.
Read each strip against the numbers up the side. On this graph one step is 1 cm.
Sample answer: five pasted strips make a bar graph of index-finger lengths. Your own graph will have your friends' names and lengths.
Why the strips must be the same width: A bar graph compares only heights. If one strip were twice as wide, it would look bigger even if the finger were shorter, and the graph would tell a lie.
Tip: Paste the strips in any order you like, but keep the same gap between them. Neat gaps make the graph easy to read.
Q2.
Whose index finger is the longest? ________ .
Answer
The answer comes from your own graph — it is the friend whose strip reaches highest.
Look across the tops of all the strips.
Find the one that reaches highest up the side line.
Read the name written under that strip. That is your answer.
Sample answer: In the graph above, Imran has the longest index finger. His strip reaches the line marked 6.
If two strips look the same: Hold a ruler flat across their tops. If the ruler touches both, the two fingers are equal — then write both names.
Q3.
The length of the longest index finger is _________ cm.
Answer
Read the number where the tallest strip stops.
Put your finger on the top of the tallest strip.
Slide it straight left until you reach the numbers on the side line.
Read the number. Remember the label on this graph: one step is 1 cm.
Sample answer: The longest index finger is 6 cm long.
Check it yourself: Take the strip off the page and measure it with your ruler. The ruler should show the same number the graph shows. If it does not, the strip was not pasted with its bottom edge on the base line.
Q4.
The smallest index finger is ___________ cm long.
Answer
Now find the shortest strip and read its height in the same way.
Find the strip that stops lowest.
Slide left to the side line and read the number.
Sample answer: The smallest index finger is 3 cm long.
Longest = 6 cm Shortest = 3 cm Difference = 6 − 3 = 3 cm
Extra question you can ask yourself: How much longer is the longest finger than the shortest? Subtract the two numbers, as shown above.
Q5.
It belongs to __________.
Answer
Read the name written in the box under the shortest strip.
Sample answer: The smallest index finger, 3 cm long, belongs to Ravi.
Why this activity works: Nobody measured a single finger with a ruler at the start. The paper strips carried the lengths for us. Once the strips stand side by side on one base line, the eye can compare them instantly — and that is exactly what a bar graph does with numbers.
Try this: Do the same with your middle finger and paste those strips next to the first set. Is the friend with the longest index finger also the one with the longest middle finger?