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NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 1 Chapter opening — The Big Questions

Book page 7 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
What is a map and how do we use it? What are its main components?
Answer

A map is a drawing, or representation, of an area as seen from above. It may show a small area (a village, a town), a bigger one (your district or State) or a very large one (India, or the whole world). A book or collection of maps is called an atlas.

How we use it: to find where a place is, to work out the way from one place to another, to judge how far apart two places are, and to see information spread over an area — where mountains are, which State grows the most wheat, where the rivers flow.

Kinds of maps:

  • Physical maps — natural features such as mountains, rivers and oceans.
  • Political maps — countries or States, their boundaries, cities and capitals.
  • Thematic maps — one special kind of information, for example a map of time zones or of rainfall.

The three main components of a map are:

1. Distance — shown by the scale (say, 1 cm = 500 m)
2. Direction — the cardinal points N, E, S, W (and NE, SE, SW, NW)
3. Symbols — small fixed signs standing for roads, railway lines, temples, wells, forests …
Why all three are needed: without a scale you cannot tell whether the market is 200 metres or 2 kilometres away; without directions you do not know which way to turn; without symbols there would not be room on the paper to draw every building and stream.
Q2.
What are coordinates? How can latitude and longitude be used to mark any location on the Earth?
Answer

Coordinates are a pair of numbers (or a number and a letter) that together fix one exact position. The chapter gives two everyday examples: “the 7th shop in the 5th row” in a market, and the square d4 on a chessboard. Neither number alone is enough — the two together point to one spot and no other.

The Earth uses the same idea, with a grid drawn on the globe:

 LatitudeLongitude
Measures the distance fromthe Equator, going north or souththe Prime Meridian, going east or west
Shape of the lineA full circle parallel to the Equator (a parallel); the circles get smaller towards the polesA half-circle from the North Pole to the South Pole (a meridian); all are of the same length
RunsEast–westNorth–south
Range0° at the Equator to 90°N and 90°S0° at Greenwich to 180°E and 180°W
North Pole 90°N South Pole 90°S Equator 0° parallels meridians
The grid on the globe: red = the Equator, blue circles = parallels of latitude (they shrink towards the poles), dark blue half-circles = meridians of longitude (all equal, meeting at the poles).

Give the two values together and the place is fixed:

Delhi = 29°N latitude, 77°E longitude (rounded off)
India lies between about 8°N and 37°N, and 68°E and 97°E
Why it always works: only one point on the whole Earth has a given pair. Every parallel crosses every meridian exactly once, so the crossing point is unique — which is how a ship's captain, a pilot or your phone's GPS states a position.
Q3.
How are local time and standard time related to longitude?
Answer

The Earth spins on its axis from west to east, one full turn of 360° in 24 hours. Divide:

360° ÷ 24 h = 15° in one hour
15° ÷ 60 min → 1° in 4 minutes

Local time is the time given by the Sun at your own longitude — it is 12 noon for you when the Sun is highest over your meridian. So places on different meridians have different local times: when it is noon at Greenwich (0°), it is 1 pm at 15°E and 11 am at 15°W.

Standard time is one clock time chosen for a whole country (or a large part of it), based on one selected meridian passing through it. It would be hopeless if every town in India kept its own local time — trains, schools and television would be in chaos.

India's standard meridian = 82°30′E (it passes near Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh)
82°30′ ÷ 15° per hour = 5 h 30 min
So IST = GMT + 5:30
The link in one line: longitude fixes local time exactly, and a country then picks one longitude to fix its standard time for everybody. That is why the Sun rises in Arunachal Pradesh about two hours before it rises in Gujarat, although every clock in both States shows the same IST.
Did you know? Some countries are too wide for one time zone — the USA has six and Russia has eleven. Travelling right across Russia you must reset your watch ten times.
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