Answer thefollowing questions briefly.
(a)What are the three components of a map?
(b)What are the four cardinal directions?
(c)What do you mean by the term ‘the scale of the map’?
(d) How are maps more helpful than a globe?
(e)Distinguish between a map and a plan.
(f)Which map provides detailed information?
(g) How do symbols help in reading maps?
(a)The three components of a map are: distance, direction and symbol.
(b)The four cardinal directions are: North, South, West and East
(c)The scale of a map is the ratio between the actual distance on the ground and the distance shown on the map.
(d)A globe is useful when we want to study the Earth as a whole. But, when we want to study only a part of the Earth, it is of little help. For this purpose, we use maps. A map can represent the entire Earth’s surface or a part of it.
Maps can be used to show the physical features of the Earth (mountains, plains, oceans, rivers, etc.), the political divisions of the Earth (countries, states, cities, villages, etc.), and certain specific information (roads, rainfall, forests, industries, etc.)
(e)
Map | Plan |
A map is a representation or a drawing of the Earth’s surface or a part of it drawn on a flat surface according to a scale. | A plan is a drawing of a small area on a large scale. |
It can be used for representing large areas like continents or countries (large scale maps), and also for representing a small area like a village or a town (small scale maps). | It is used for representing those things that cannot be represented in a map. For example, the length and the breadth of a room cannot be shown in a map. For this purpose, a plan is used. |
(f)A large scale map provides detailed information.
(g)As it is not possible to draw on a map the actual shape and size of different features (e.g., buildings, roads, bridges), they are shown by using certain standard letters, shades, colours, pictures and lines. These symbols give a lot of information in a little space. Using these symbols, maps can be drawn easily. The use of symbols makes maps simple to read.