Maps

Question: What do you mean by maps?
Answer: Map is a representation of the earth surface or map is a drawing of different features on the earth surface on a plane of paper according to the scale.

Question: Explain about different types of map.
Answer: Generally three types of maps are there. Which are as follows:

• Physical map: Physical maps those maps showing the physical properties of the earth. For example mountains, plains, plateaus, islands etc. are shown on the physical maps.
• Political map: This maps are generally prepared for political purposes. In this kind of map we shows political units of the nation, like villages, cities, states or international boundaries etc.
• Thematic map: Few maps are there – focus on some specific information. For example road map, rainfall distribution map, forest map, soil map, map for showing agricultural pattern or land use etc. These are the thematic map. This types of map uses in different offices.

Question: What are the basic elements or components of maps?

Answer: Following are the important components of a map, like distance, direction or symbol etc.

• Distance:
  Map is a drawing, which reduce the whole world or a part of it to fit on a sheet of paper. Here distance between two objects play the vital role. This distance reduction between two places is done very carefully so that we can properly place that places on a plane of paper. When a large place on the ground need to draw on a small size page, we have to take proportion accordingly.
• Direction:
  Most of the maps contains an arrow symbol on the top right side of the map with a latter ‘N’. This indicates the direction of map means north direction. It is the north line. With the help of this north line we can identify other objects location on the ground by observing maps.
• Symbols:
  It is one of the important component of maps. There are so many symbols on maps indicating different features of the earth. Without these symbols it is not possible to differentiate different objects on a map. On a map it is not possible to draw each and every real features of the world. But if we use these symbols to identify different features it becomes easy.

Question: Differentiate between a small scale map and the large scale map.

Answer:

Small scale maps	Large scale maps
When a small area is shown on a piece of paper such kind of maps are small scale maps. For example a small village is drawn with the scale 1 centimeter equal to 100 meters.  In this type of map represents more detail information. This type is mainly uses for official purposes.	On the other hand, when a large area is shown on a piece of paper such kind of maps are large scale map. For example a large continent is drawn with the scale 1 centimeter equal to 1000 kilometers. In the case of large scale map it is not possible to show detail information of that places. Such type of map is available in everywhere in the market.

Question: What do you mean by conventional symbols?
Answer: Each and every map have some special symbol to identify different features. For example red color small and square shape box indicates human settlements, blue irregular lines indicates rivers etc. These type of symbols on map are conventional sign or conventional symbols.

Questions: Differentiate between maps and sketches.
Answer:

Map	Sketch
This is a representation of some features of the earth on a small piece of paper with the help of scale. Accuracy level is very high due to the use of scale. These are the preparation of experts.	Sketch is also drawing of some features, but it does not maintain scale. But in the case of sketch maintaining accuracy is not essential. It is not necessary to draw a sketch.