ASSIGNMENT- 1

A) USES OF IMPORTANT
TYPES OF MAPS

-Srijani Priya TH
9A
 About Maps~

What is a Map?
A map is a representation or a drawing of the
earth’s surface, or a part of it, drawn or
printed on a flat surface, according to a
scale. A map helps you to identify the places
and locations within an area helping one to
navigate from one place to another.

The map is considered as a symbiotic relationship between elements

such as objects, reins and also themes. Many maps are usually static
and also fixed to paper  or some medium. Maps represent space that
could be real or may be fictional. The space which is mapped could be
two dimensional such as the surface of the earth and also three
dimensional.

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Difference between globe and map:

1. A globe is a three-dimensional sphere while, a map is two-

dimensional.
1. A globe represents the whole earth, whereas a map may represent
the whole earth or just a part of it.
2. A globe can be used to get a broad-level picture of the world while,
map provides more specific information about different places.
3. A globe, being spherical in shape, spins around an axis. However, a
map, being a representation on a piece of paper, does not spin.
4. A globe is made of hard material and cannot be folded making it
difficult to be carried around, unlike maps, which are made on paper
and can be easily folded and carried around.
5. Maps can be referred to for navigating from one place to another
while globes don’t provide enough specific details to help you in
navigation.

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A compilation of many maps is called an atlas.

Specification on different types of Maps

Maps are of varied types which attempt to show different classifications.  These
maps are placed in two groups: 
•Reference Maps
•Thematic Maps.

Reference maps: show the location of the geographic areas which the data has
been tabulated. The maps also display the boundaries, names and also many
geographic areas and also all the physical features. The physical features include
roads, rail, coastlines, rivers, lakes and mountains.

Thematic maps: A thematic map shows the spatial distribution of one or more
specific data themes for selected geographic areas. The map may be qualitative
(e.g., predominant farm types) or quantitative (e.g., percentage population
change).

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Some Commonly used Maps are as follows:

Political Boundary Maps 

Political Maps are those maps that show boundaries between the countries,
states, and other political units. A commonly used political map in the US
shows almost 50 states.

Election Result Maps 

They are considered some type of political map which shows election results by
the geographic subdivision or by voting district. In the US, for the presidential
election, the red-state/blue-state maps are in use. 

Physical Maps 
This map shows the topographic land structure. There are different color
gradient reliefs. Like for example, Dark greens are used for sea-level elevations,
green grades to tan, and brown for elevation increase. While the highest
elevation is the shades of gray. 

Species Distribution Maps 

These maps show specific plants and animals which are to be found in that
place. 

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Digital Road, Street, and Highway Maps 
Google Maps has special tools which enable the feature for us to search the
“nearby” restaurants, hotels, bars and pubs, museums, bike shops, pizza hub,
schools, etc. If Google Maps is allowed to use our current location then we can
easily reach our destination following the google direction.  

Topographic Map 
This type of map shows the earth’s topography by using brown-colored contour
lines. Roads, place names, streams, and other features are shown on this map
distinctively.

 Time Zone Maps 

In this type of map, the world’s 24-hour time zones are displayed in different
color bands. By following the numbers on the top and bottom of the map, we can
determine the time interval between these two locations. 

Maps represent the real world on a much smaller scale. They help you travel
from one location to another. They help you organize information. 

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 ASSIGNMENT- 2
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B ) D I R E C T I O N S AN D H OW TO I D E N T I F Y
T H E M - A N I L L U S T R AT I V E D I AG R A M
Directions of the map~
Direction is the most important thing you need to know when you're lost in the
rainforest. Direction is the way that you have to travel to get from one place or
object to another place or object. It's usually measured in terms of compass
directions: north, south, east, and west. North is directly up on standard maps;
south is directly down; east is directly right; and west is directly left. If this is ever
not the case, there will be something on the map that tells you this. This will
usually be an arrow, a cross, or some kind of pointed star that shows which
direction is north.

If you know roughly where you are on a map, and

you know where you need to get to, you can use the
map to see whether you should travel north, south,
east, or west. If you have a compass, traveling that
direction is easy. If it's at night, you could also use
the North Star, which is called Polaris.
Unsurprisingly, the North Star is always in the
north.

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.

 
Directions are very important. Knowledge about directions is necessary
for making maps and also for reading them, especially for the army
during the war.
                                      
As we all know that sun rises in East and sets in West. Hence North and
South directions are diagonally at right angles to East West line.
Principally any line on the Earth which touches Northern most part of
Axis, points towards North. Same way any line touching southernmost
part of axis points towards South.
So, out of four directions East, West, North, South, if we know about
one direction then we can find out others also. In ancient times
travelers and sailors were able to find their routes without compass in
sea, forests and deserts.

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Identifying directions~

Every map has three essential components:

Distance
Direction and
Symbols

A Scale is a ratio that represents the relationship between the actual distance on
the ground and the distance on the map. The scale indicates how many units of
the earth’s surface are equal to one unit on the map.

You use a large scale map to represent a small area, and a small scale map to
represent a large area. A map that represents a small area, such as a residential
colony, a village or a town, in relatively greater detail is called a large scale map.

Small scale maps are used to represent such large areas. The letter ‘N’ with an
arrow pointing upwards at the upper right hand corner of most of the maps is
called the North line and it represents the northern direction. 

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Using the north line as a reference, one can easily
figure out the East, West and South directions in
the map. One can refer to these four main
directions as the cardinal points.

There are four intermediate directions:

North-East (NE)
South-East (SE)
South-West (SW)
North-West (NW)
 
You can use these directions to locate a place
accurately on a map.

You can use a compass to find out the main

directions of a place. A compass is an instrument
with a magnetic needle that always points in the
north-south direction. Often, pilots and sailors
refer a compass to check if they are moving in the
right direction.

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 ASSIGNMENT- 3
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C) READING OF TOWN GUIDE MAP

(RECOGNISING THE SYMBOLS AND COLOURS

USED, IDENTIFYING DIRECTIONS AND DISTANCES)
Reading of town guide maps~

• In order to read a town map, the first task is to select the correct type of map
out of the different types available, such as topographic, road map, tourist map
etc. in the next step, the correct scale of the map is selected. following this, the
map is pointed north, and the location to visit is identified on the map.

• Topographical maps drawn approximately where as town maps are

drawn strictly from Tourists point of view based on topographical maps.

• First time city visitors can take a help from town maps.

• Town guide maps are based on the topographical survey map sheets.

• Town guide maps gives the complete sketch of city along with symbols
for roads, buildings, transport lanes and all.

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 Others terms-

Town guide maps gives the complete

sketch of town along with the
symbols for different colonies, road
boundaries, public places,
monuments, hospitals, hotels, bus
stands, banks, taxi stands, art
gallery and information centres, and
etc.

Town guide maps importance are of

providing complete information
about transportation and
communication network of the city
using appropriate symbols hence
town guide maps are of great asset
for tourists department.
Town guide map of Kolkata

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Symbols and colours used-
a) While studying a topographical sheet one has to familiar with colours
used in a topo sheet

b) These colours are called as Conventional colours.

c) These conventional symbols are accepted all over the world.

d) Examples of conventional symbols or colours representing particular

features are shown in below figure.

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Directions use-

a) Measuring distances and calculating area.

b) Measuring distances in a straight line or crow flies from place A
to place b or one place to another place.
c) The crow flies refers to the shortest distance between two points
using scale or divider by placing the divider legs at two points
and then by placing it on the linear scale the distance can be
calculated.
d) The distance of crow fly is as shown below in figure.

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Acknowledgement-

I would like to express my thanks of gratitude to my

geography teacher Mrs. Juliet Regina ma’am as well as our
Principal Mrs. Christy Glory Shanti who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this beautiful assignment based on the topic
‘ The study of Maps’ , which also helped me in doing a lot of
research and learn new things

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Bibliography-

•www.wikipedia.com
•www.encyclopedia.com
•www.geographynotes.com
•www.nextgurukul.com
•www.brainly.com
•A textbook of ICSE geography class 9
- Veena Bhargava

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