NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 2 The diagram of the relative sizes of the seven continents — LET'S EXPLORE
Book page 36 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Counting the numbers of squares, name the largest continent and the smallest.
Answer
Count the squares of each colour block in the diagram on page 36. Remember that the diagram does not show the real shapes of the continents, only their relative sizes.
Continent
Squares
Real area (approx.)
Asia
51 — the largest
4.4 crore sq km
Africa
30
3.0 crore sq km
North America
21
2.5 crore sq km
South America
18
1.8 crore sq km
Antarctica
13
1.4 crore sq km
Europe
11
1.0 crore sq km
Australia
8 — the smallest
0.86 crore sq km
Total
152
about 14.9 crore sq km of land
Largest continent = Asia (51 squares) Smallest continent = Australia (8 squares)
The same information as a bar chart. Asia alone is nearly a third of all the land on the Earth.
Tip while counting: go row by row, not shape by shape, and mark each row's total in pencil at its edge. The blocks are deliberately awkward — Asia has a two-square cap on top and a step at the bottom right, and Australia has a notch in its bottom row.
Q2.
Which one is larger — North America or South America? Africa or North America? Antarctica or Australia?
Answer
Use the square counts from the diagram:
The pair
Squares
Larger
North America or South America?
21 vs 18
North America
Africa or North America?
30 vs 21
Africa
Antarctica or Australia?
13 vs 8
Antarctica
Why the book bothers to ask: on an ordinary world map these three pairs are the easiest to get wrong. Most flat maps stretch the areas near the poles, which makes Antarctica look like an endless white band and Greenland look bigger than Africa. This squares diagram removes the stretching, so the true comparison shows.
Check it on a globe: a globe, unlike a flat map, keeps the sizes honest. Look for Africa and North America on one — Africa is clearly the bigger of the two, though a wall map may suggest otherwise.
Q3.
Re-colour the diagram by having a single colour for Europe and Asia and rename the result as ‘Eurasia’. Compare its size with South America's.
Answer
Colour the Europe block and the Asia block in one colour — say green — and write EURASIA across them. Then add their squares:
Europe = 11 squares
Asia = 51 squares Eurasia = 11 + 51 = 62 squares
South America = 18 squares
62 ÷ 18 ≈ 3.4
So Eurasia is about three and a half times the size of South America. Put the other way round, South America is a little less than one-third of Eurasia.
Block
Squares
Share of all land
Eurasia (Europe + Asia)
62
about 41% — more than two-fifths of all the land on Earth
South America
18
about 12%
Why geologists prefer ‘Eurasia’: there is no sea between Europe and Asia. The usual dividing line — the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus — is a line people agreed on, not a coastline. Seen as rock and soil, it is one gigantic continent, and this exercise lets you feel just how gigantic.
Q4.
Write down the list of continents from the smallest to the largest.
Answer
From the square counts of the page-36 diagram:
Australia (8) → Europe (11) → Antarctica (13) → South America (18) → North America (21) → Africa (30) → Asia (51)
Rank (smallest first)
Continent
Squares
1
Australia
8
2
Europe
11
3
Antarctica
13
4
South America
18
5
North America
21
6
Africa
30
7
Asia
51
Turn it around: largest to smallest reads Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, Australia. Many students remember it as “A A N S A E A” — the first letters in order.
A useful check: Asia (51) is bigger than Europe, Australia and Antarctica put together (11 + 8 + 13 = 32) — and still bigger than Africa (30). One continent holds about a third of all the land on the planet, and about three-fifths of all the people.