NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 10 .2 — In-text Questions

Book page 19110 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

What other conditions do you think would affect seed germination?

Answer

Besides water, air and light, several other conditions decide whether a seed will sprout.

Condition	How it affects germination	Everyday proof
Temperature	Most Indian crop seeds germinate best between about 20 °C and 35 °C. Very cold or very hot conditions slow it down or stop it.	Moong sprouts in a day in June but takes three days in December
Quality and age of the seed	A damaged, insect-eaten, roasted or very old seed has a dead embryo and will never germinate	Roasted chana never sprouts
Depth of sowing	Sown too deep, the shoot runs out of stored food before reaching the surface; left on top, the seed dries out	Farmers sow small seeds shallow and big seeds deeper
Type of soil	Loose loamy soil holds both water and air; hard clay holds water but little air; pure sand drains away too fast	Seeds do better in a well-tilled field than on a beaten path
Nutrients (manure)	Not needed for germination itself, but essential for the seedling that follows	Compost added to a kitchen garden bed
Salinity of water and soil	Very salty water stops the seed from taking in water	Nothing grows on a salt-crusted patch of ground

Try This: design a fair test for any one of these — say, depth. Sow bean seeds at 1 cm, 3 cm and 8 cm in three identical pots and keep water, air and sunlight the same. Only then will the difference you see be due to depth alone. (Question 9 of the exercise asks you to do exactly this for temperature.)

Q2.

In Activity 10.1, what are the characteristics of living beings which made you place plants in living beings? Do plants show growth in Activity 10.2? Are there any other characteristics of living beings that these plants show?

Answer

Why plants were placed among living beings in Activity 10.1: they grow, they need water, air and nutrients, they respire through stomata, they excrete droplets on their leaves, they respond to stimuli such as touch and light, they reproduce through seeds, and they finally die.

Do plants show growth in Activity 10.2? Yes, very clearly.

Day	What you see in Pot D
Day 0	A dry, hard bean seed under the soil
Day 2–3	The seed has swollen; the coat has split; a small white root pushes downwards
Day 4–5	A shoot appears above the soil, bent like a hook
Day 7–10	The shoot straightens, the first green leaves open, the root branches out

Other characteristics visible in the same activity:

Nutrition — the seedling first uses the food stored inside the seed, then makes its own food once the green leaves open.
Respiration — the seeds needed air; that is why Pot B failed. This is respiration made visible.
Response to stimuli — the root turned downwards and the shoot upwards without anyone guiding them; the pale Pot C seedlings turned green when brought into light.
Death — the seeds in Pot B decayed, and a plant that is denied its conditions dies.

The point of asking again: in Activity 10.1 you called a plant living because of what you already believed. After Activity 10.2 you can say it because you watched it happen. That is the difference between an opinion and evidence.

Q3.

How would you now categorise a seed, as living or non-living?

Answer

Living — and now I can prove it instead of only saying it.

Characteristic of life	Shown by the seed in Activity 10.2?
Growth	Yes — it swelled, sent out a root and a shoot, and became a seedling
Respiration	Yes — it needed air; the seeds without air (Pot B) died
Nutrition	Yes — it used the food stored inside itself, then made its own
Movement	Yes — the root moved down and the shoot moved up
Response to stimuli	Yes — it responded to water, to gravity and later to light
Reproduction	Yes — the grown plant will produce fresh seeds
Death	Yes — the seeds in the waterlogged pot died and rotted

Why the dry seed fooled us: a dormant seed keeps its life processes running so slowly that nothing shows on the outside. It is like a lamp turned down almost to nothing — the flame is small, but it has not gone out. Add water and air and the flame flares up again.

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