Geography As a Discipline -Solutions

CBSE Class 11 Geography

NCERT Solutions
Chapter 1
Geography As A Discipline

1. Multiple choice questions.

(i) Which one of the following scholars coined the term 'Geography'?

(a) Herodotus
(b) Erathosthenese
(c) Galileo
(d) Aristotle.

Ans. (b) Erathosthenese.He was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist.

(ii) Which one of the following features can be termed as 'physical feature'?

(a) Port
(b) Road
(c) Plain
(d) Water park.

Ans. (c) Plain.

(iii) Make correct pairs from the following two columns and mark the correct option.

1. Meteorology	A. Population Geography
2. Demography	B. Soil Geography
3. Sociology	C. Climatology
4. Pedology	D. Social Geography

(a) 1B,2C,3A,4D

(b) 1A,2D,3B,4C

(d) 1C,2A,3D,4B.

Ans. (d) 1C,2A,3D,4B.

(iv) Which one of the following questions is related to cause-effect relationship?

(a) Why
(b) Where
(c) What
(d) When.

Ans. (a) Why

(v) Which one of the following disciplines attempts temporal synthesis?

(a) Sociology
(b) Geography
(c) Anthropology
(d) History.

Ans. (a) History.

2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.

(i) What important cultural features do you observe while going to school? Are they similar or dissimilar? Should they be included in the study of geography or not? If yes, why?

Ans. While going to school we see shops, theatres, roads, temples, mosques, churches, houses, government offices, etc. These represent cultural features. All of these features are dissimilar. Yes, these must be included in the study of geography as they play an important role in understanding human geography. They are an inseparable part of social and cultural geography.

(ii) You have seen a tennis ball, a cricket ball, an orange and a pumpkin. Which one amongst these resembles the shape of the earth? Why have you chosen this particular item to describe the shape of the earth?

Ans. We have seen tennis ball, a cricket ball, an orange and a pumpkin. Amongst them an orange resembles the shape of the earth the most because a tennis ball and a cricket ball are almost circles or spheres and pumpkin is comparatively longer. But the earth is a geoid flatter at the poles (like an orange) and bulging at the Equator .

(iii) Do you celebrate Van Mahotsava in your school? Why do we plant so many trees? How do the trees maintain ecological balance?

Ans. Yes, we celebrate Van Mahotsava in our school. We plant many trees on this occasion because trees provide us oxygen, food, rubber, paper, medicinal herbs and uncountable life-giving things. Plants take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen and in this way they maintain the ecological balance.

(iv) You have seen elephants, deer, earthworms, trees and grasses. Where do they live or grow? What is the name given to this sphere? Can you describe some of the important features of this sphere?

Ans. We have seen elephants, deer, earthworms, trees and grasses. They live and grow on the biosphere. Important features of biosphere are as follows:
(a) The combined form of lithosphere (land sphere), hydrosphere and atmosphere where life is possible is called biosphere.
(b) Plants and animals are biotic elements of the biosphere while soil, water, air, etc. are abiotic elements.
(c) Both moving and non-moving living beings are seen on the biosphere. Moving living beings include animals, insects, birds, aquatic animals, human beings, etc while non-moving beings include trees, plants, grass, etc.

(v) How much time do you take to reach your school from your house? Had the school been located across the road from your house, how much time would you have taken to reach school? What is the effect of the distance between your residence and the school on the time taken in commuting? Can you convert time into space and vice versa?

Ans. I take around one hour to reach my school. Had my school been located across the road from my house, I would reach there in two minutes. Due to long distance between my residence and school a lot of time gets wasted in commuting. It affects my studies as less time is left for studies. Space can be converted into time when we say that a place is 45 minutes (distance) from here but time cannot be converted into space.

3. Answer the following questions in about 150 words.
(i) You observe every day in your surroundings that there is variation in natural as well as cultural phenomena. All the trees are not of the same variety. All the birds and animals you see, are different. All these different elements are found on the earth. Can you now argue that geography is the study of "areal differentiation"?

Ans. We observe every day in our surroundings that there is variation in natural as well as cultural phenomena. All the trees are not of the same variety. All the birds and animals we see, are different. All these different elements are found on the earth. It is right to say that Geography is the study of "areal differentiation" but it will be absolutely wrong to say that geography is the study of only "areal differentiation." Geography as a discipline is related to space and takes note of spatial characteristics and attributes. It studies the patterns of distribution, location and concentration of phenomena over space and interprets them providing explanations for these patterns. It takes note of the associations and inter- relationships between the phenomena over space and interprets them providing explanations for these patterns. It also takes note of the associations and inter-relationships between the phenomena resulting from the dynamic interaction between human beings and their physical environment. Geography helps in understanding the reality in totality, in its spatial perspective. Geography, thus, not only takes note of the differences in the phenomena from place to place but integrates them holistically which may be different at other places. For example, there are regional variations in the cropping pattern which are associated with variations in soils, climate, demands on the market, capacity of the farmers to invest and technological inputs available to the farmers.

(ii) You have already studied geography, history, civics and economics as parts of social studies. Attempt an integration of these disciplines highlighting their interface.

Ans. All social science disciplines such as History, Civics and Economics study different aspects of social reality. Geography is closely linked with these disciplines. It is an integrated discipline.
(a) Geography and History: The geographical factors have modified the course of history in different parts of the world. Every geographical phenomenon undergoes a change through time and can be explained temporarily. The changes in land forms, climate, vegetation, economic activities, occupations and cultural developments have followed a definite historical course. This, History became the chronological study and Geography became the chorological study.
(b) Geography and Civics: Civics is the study of theoretical, political and practical aspects of citizenship.The core concern of political science is territory, people and sovereignty while political geography is also interested in the study of the state as a spatial unit as well as people and their political behaviour.
(c) Geography and Economics: Economics deals with basic attributes of the economy such as production, distribution, exchange and consumption. Each of these attributes also has spatial aspects and here comes the role of economic geography to study the spatial aspects of production, distribution, exchange and consumption.