NCERT Book Class 7 Mathematics (Part I) Chapter 1 Large Numbers Around Us

1 LARGE NUMBERS
AROUND US

1.1 A Lakh Varieties!
Eshwarappa is a farmer in Chintamani,
a town in Karnataka. He visits the
market regularly to buy seeds for his
rice field. During one such visit he
overheard a conversation between
Ramanna and Lakshmamma. Ramanna
said, “Earlier our country had about a
lakh varieties of rice. Farmers used to
preserve different varieties of seeds
and use them to grow rice. Now, we
only have a handful of varieties. Also,
farmers have to come to the market to buy seeds”.
Lakshmamma said, “There is a seed bank near my house. So far, they
have collected about a hundred indigenous varieties of rice seeds from
different places. You can also buy seeds from there.”
You may have heard the word ‘lakh’
before. Do you know how big one lakh is? Let
us find out.
Eshwarappa shared this incident with his
daughter Roxie and son Estu .
Estu was surprised to know that there
were about one lakh varieties of rice in this
country. He wondered “One lakh! So far I
have only tasted 3 varieties. If we tried a new
variety each day, would we even come close
to tasting all the varieties in a lifetime of 100
years?”
What do you think? Guess.