Important Formulas: Maps and Locations | Mathematics (Maths Mela) Class 5 - New NCERT PDF Download

Finding Directions: Using the Sun

• Face the rising sun → you face East.

• Stretch out your arms:

  1. Left hand → North

  2. Right hand → South

  3. Behind you → West

• These are the four cardinal directions.

Example: Manu is facing the rising sun → East.

• Left hand → North

• Right hand → South

• Behind → West

What is a Compass?

• A compass is a tool to find directions.

• It has a magnetic needle that always points North.

• Once North is known, we can find South, East, and West.

• Used by travelers, sailors, hikers, and explorers.

Maps

A map is a special drawing that shows places.

Maps show:

• Places: houses, roads, parks, shops, monuments

• Symbols: small pictures or signs

• Directions: arrow showing North (N)

• Routes: paths or roads

• Key/Legend: explains symbols

Keys/Legends in a Map

• A Key/Legend explains symbols on a map.

• Example: Metro map with colored lines.
  

Shortest Route

• Sometimes many roads lead to the same place.

• The shortest route saves time and effort.

Example:
Route A → B → C (longer)
Route A → C (straight, shorter)

Coordinates

Coordinates locate exact positions on a grid/map.Written as (x, y).

• x = horizontal (row)

• y = vertical (column)

Solved Examples

Example 1: In a map, the scale is 1 cm of map = 5 km on Earth, then fill in the blank. 
13 cm = ……….. km.
Sol: Follow the same method of the solved example given above,
1 cm = 5 km
13 cm = ?   km
13 * 5 = 65 km

Example 2: From the image, the largest distance between A and B is in Map - 1 or Map - 2.

Sol: Let us first calculate the distance between A and B in Map - 1 and 2
Distance in Map - 1 = 2 cm + 3 cm + 8 cm + 1 cm = 14 cm
Distance in Map - 2 = 6 cm + 1 cm + 3 cm + 2 cm + 2 cm + 1 cm = 15 cm
Hence from both the distances, we can say that distance in Map - 2 is the largest.

Example 3:

Now let us answer some questions with reference to the above image,

Q1: What is the path taken by Panda?
Sol: The path chosen by Panda on the map is along 1, 2, 5, and 6. Panda starts at Bheem Uncle's house, then goes along with Appu Confectionery, then crosses Post Box and reaches Toofan’s house.

Q2: Find the distance from Bheem's uncle's house to Toofan's house. (Hint: Distance is the length between two points.)
Sol: To find the distance, let us first add the total scale from Bheem's uncle's house to Toofan’s House. Follow paths 1, 2, 5, and 6 on the map.
2 cm + 4 cm + 1 cm + 5 cm
From the scale it is given that 1 cm = 2 km. Hence we should replace the 1 cm value with 2 km.
Hence we can write the scale values as,
2 cm = 1 cm + 1 cm = 2 km + 2 km = 4 km
4 cm = 1 cm + 1 cm + 1 cm + 1 cm = 2 km + 2 km + 2 km + 2 km = 8 km
1 cm = 2 km
5 cm = 1 cm + 1 cm + 1 cm + 1 cm + 1 cm = 2 km + 2 km + 2 km + 2 km + 2 km = 10 km
Now let us add all the values,
4 km + 8 km + 2 km + 10 km
24 km

Q3: From the map which is the longest road?
Sol: By looking at the map we can say that the largest scale number in the path chosen by Panda is the longest road. Hence 5 cm is the largest number, number 6 is the longest road.