Representation of Geographical Features (Geography): Class 7

Question. What is a map?
Answer: A map is a representation of any area of the earth on a flat surface.

Question. What is a map’s scale?
Answer: A scale of the map shows the relation between the distance on the map and the corresponding distance on the ground.

Question. What are topographical maps?
Answer: Topographic map is a large-scale map showing both natural and man-made features.

Question. What do we call a net of lines that helps us locate features on a map?
Answer: A net of vertical and horizontal lines that help us locate features on a map is called grid.

Question. Which colour is most commonly used to show water bodies in maps?
Answer: The most commonly used colour to show water bodies in the map is blue.

Question. Which colour is used to show gridlines and their numbers in topographic maps?
Answer: Red colour is used to show grid lines and their numbers in topographic map.

Question. Distinguish between Large-scale and small-scale maps.

Answer: Large-scale maps, like tourist maps, show much smaller areas on relatively large sized papers. Small-scale maps, like the ones generally found in an atlas, show large area of the earth.

• Eastings are vertical lines drawn on a topographic map.
• Northings are horizontal lines drawn on a topographic map.

Areas coloured green and areas coloured yellow on a topographic map. Areas coloured green on a topographic map present forested areas. The areas which are coloured in yellow on a topographic map suggest cultivated land. Water bodies coloured blue and water bodies coloured black on a topographic map. Water bodies and wells that contain water are shown in blue colour on a topographic map. While those water bodies that are dry are shown in black colour on a topographic map.

Question. What are the different ways of showing scale on a map?

There are three different ways of indicating the scale of the map. By statement, for example 1 cm to 100 kilometre. By a graduated straight line, known as a linear scale or graphical scale. By the representative fraction, that is, the ratio between the map distance and the ground distance.

A map scale is given thus: 1 cm to 500m. What is the RF of this map?

If the map scale of the map is 1 cm to 500m. Then the RF of this map is 1: 50,000. How do we find the directions on the map if no direction shown? Some maps have neither the north line nor a compass rose. In such maps, the upper part is taken as north; lower part is thus the south. and left and right side represent the directions west and east respectively.

Why is the grid of a topographic map not made up of parallels and Meridian as in atlas maps?

Topographic maps cover much smaller areas. Most of them cover less than 1`of latitude and longitude. Hence, in these maps there not enough meridians or parallels to form the grid.

What are conventional symbols?

Because of the limited space, we do not show the actual shapes and size of trees, buildings, villages etc. on the map. We show these features with the help of various agreed symbols. These symbols are called conventional symbols. These symbols make it easier to draw and read maps.

Question: Explain use of colours on maps

• 1. Maps are representations of physical features of the ground on paper.
• 2. Maps can show where certain physical features such as mountains and rivers are located. They can show what areas of the world make up the territories of the various countries.
• 3. Maps are very important because of the information that they can impart to us.
• 4. They can be large scale or small scale, depending on the amount of information shown.
• 5. Large scale maps show detailed information while small scale maps show less detail for large territories, e.g.: political maps.
• 6. Different colours signify different features on the ground.
• 7. Many colours used on maps have a relationship to an object or feature on the ground. For example, blue is almost always the colour chosen for water.

Question: Explain Scale

• 1. Representation of real life ground details on map requires that the data be reduced to be read easily. Scale helps us to do that and makes map reading easy and convenient.
• 2. Map scale refers to the relationship (or ratio) between distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground. For example, on a 1:100000 scale map, 1cm on the map equals or means 1km on the ground. 3. Linear scale or graphical scale visually shows the relationship between distances in the real world and the corresponding distance on maps. It is a line divided into equal parts.
• 4. Another type of scale is representative fraction where the scale is represented as a fraction.

Question: Explain the different types of scales.

There are different types of scales such as verbal statements, representative fraction and linear scale. Let us know more about these scales in detail.

Verbal statement: Scale written in a statement from like 2 cm to 1 kilometre is called verbal statement. It means that 2 cm on the map represents one kilometre on the earth.

Representative Fraction: Scale can also be written as a representative fraction(R.F.). For example 1:50,000; it means 1 cm on the map represents 50000 or half kilometre on the ground. It shows the ratio between map distance and ground distance.

Linear Scale: Scale can be drawn on a line to show map distance equivalent to ground distance. A line is divided into equal parts. Each part represents the actual distance on the ground in m/km.

Question: Explain Distance Measurement

1. Use a ruler (or divider, then measure the divider against the ruler) to measure the distance between the two places. If the line that you’re trying to measure is curved, use a string to determine the distance, and then measure the string by simply measuring it with a ruler.

2. Now measure against the scale given at the bottom of the map to determine the distance on the ground.

Question: Explain conventional signs

• 1. Conventional signs and symbols are standardised (they don’t change) signs which are used to show different features on a map.
• 2. They make map reading easy and quick.

Question: Fill in the blanks.

• Topographical maps are prepared on the basis of a detailed survey of the areas concerned.
• Map scale refers to the ratio of the distance on the map and the corresponding actual distance on the ground.
• Contour lines depicts the physical features of a place.
• the colour green is used to represent the different kinds of vegetation.
• Latitudes and longitudes on the topographical map indicate the exact location of a place.
• Cartography is the science of map making.
• Brown colour is used to represent contour lines.
• The representative fraction is a dimensionless fraction.
• Cultivated land is indicated by yellow colour on maps.
• Nucleated, dispersed and linear are different types of settlements depicted on topographical maps.

Question: True or False.