EN हिं

NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 2 The Distribution of Water and Land on the Earth (Fig. 2.2) — LET'S EXPLORE

Book page 29 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
What are the circular lines in each map called? And do you know what the lines radiating out of the two poles are called? (Hint: you studied them in the previous chapter, but here they are presented differently.)
Answer

Both sets of lines are the grid of Chapter 1, only seen from directly above a pole instead of from the side.

On the map in Fig. 2.2What it is calledWhy it looks like that
The circular lines, one inside the otherParallels of latitudeParallels really are circles round the Earth. Looking straight down on a pole, you see them as rings — the pole itself is the centre, and the outermost ring is the Equator (0°).
The lines radiating out of the pole like the spokes of a wheelMeridians of longitudeEvery meridian runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, so all of them meet at the pole. From above, they spread out from that single point.
Why the same lines look so different: in Chapter 1 you saw the globe from the side, so parallels looked like straight horizontal lines and meridians like curves joining top and bottom. Here you are looking down the Earth's axis. The lines have not changed — only your point of view has.
Check it yourself: hold a globe so that the North Pole points straight at your eye. The Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator become three circles, one inside the other, and all the meridians fan out from the pole.
Q2.
Which hemisphere holds more water?
Answer

The Southern Hemisphere holds more water.

Compare the two maps of Fig. 2.2:

  • The North Pole map (left) is crowded with land — North America, Europe, Asia and the top of Africa ring the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean itself is the smallest of the five oceans.
  • The South Pole map (right) is almost all blue. Apart from Antarctica in the middle, the only land you can see is the far tip of South America, the south of Africa and Australia — small pieces in a huge stretch of ocean.
Why it works out this way: almost all the big landmasses happen to sit north of the Equator. So the Northern Hemisphere gets more land, and the Southern Hemisphere is left with more water. This is exactly the point the book repeats in Before we move on …: the Northern Hemisphere has more land than the Southern Hemisphere.
Q3.
What do you think could be the approximate proportion of water to land in the Northern Hemisphere? And in the Southern Hemisphere? Discuss in groups.
Answer

This question asks for a sensible estimate from the map, not an exact figure. A good group answer is:

HemisphereWaterLandRoughly
Northern Hemisphereabout 3/5 (60%)about 2/5 (40%)A little more water than land
Southern Hemisphereabout 4/5 (80%)about 1/5 (20%)Overwhelmingly water
The whole Earthabout 3/4 (71%)about 1/4 (29%)The figure given on page 28
Northern Hemisphere water ≈ 60% land ≈ 40% Southern Hemisphere water ≈ 80% land ≈ 20% Both halves have more water than land — but the south has far more.
An estimate you can defend from Fig. 2.2. Your group's numbers may differ a little; the pattern must be the same.
How to estimate it in class: place a sheet of tracing paper over each map, draw a square grid on it, and count how many squares fall mostly on blue and how many mostly on brown. Then write the two counts as a fraction. Different groups will get slightly different numbers — that is exactly what an approximate proportion means.
Q4.
Are all the oceans connected with one another, or are there separations between them?
Answer

All five oceans are connected. There is really only one continuous body of seawater wrapped around the planet. The lines drawn between the oceans in Fig. 2.3 are conventions — agreements between people — not walls, and “the natural world does not follow such boundaries”.

You can trace the joins yourself on a globe:

  • The Southern Ocean circles Antarctica and touches the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, joining all three.
  • The Atlantic and the Pacific also meet round the southern tip of South America, through the Drake Passage.
  • The Arctic Ocean opens into the Atlantic beside Greenland and Norway, and into the Pacific through the narrow Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.
  • The Indian Ocean reaches the Pacific through the seas of Indonesia and the Strait of Malacca.
Why this matters: because the water is joined, it keeps flowing from one ocean into another. That is how the same species of whale, turtle or seaweed can be found in more than one ocean — and, sadly, how plastic thrown into the sea off one country reaches the beaches of another.
Did you know? Two of the world's busiest sea links are not natural at all. The Suez Canal (Egypt) joins the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and so to the Indian Ocean, and the Panama Canal joins the Atlantic to the Pacific. Both were dug by people to save ships weeks of sailing.
Was this helpful? Report an error