These NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science Chapter 3 Fibre to Fabric Questions and Answers are prepared by our highly skilled subject experts to help students while preparing for their exams.
Fibre to Fabric NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science Chapter 3
Class 6 Science Chapter 3 Fibre to Fabric Textbook Exercise Questions and Answers
Question 1.
Classify the following fibres as natural or synthetic.
nylon, wool, cotton, silk, polyester, jute
Answer:
Natural fibres: wool, cotton, jute, silk
Synthetic fibres: Nylon, polyester
Question 2.
State whether the following statements are ‘true’ or false’.
a. Yam is made from fibres.
b. Spinning is a process of making fibres.
c. Jute is the outer covering of coconut.
d. The process of removing seeds from cotton is called ginning.
e. Weaving of yarn makes a piece of fabric.
f. Silk fibre is obtained from the stem of a plant.
g. Polyester is a natural fibre.
Answer:
a. True
b. False
c. False
d. True
e. True
f. False
g. False
Question 3.
Fill in the blanks.
a. Plant fibres are obtained from …………. and ………….
b. Animal fibres are …………. and ………….
Answer:
a. cotton plants, jute plants
b. wool, silk
Question 4.
From which parts of the plant cotton and jute are obtained?
Answer:
Cotton fibres are obtained from cotton seeds. They are the hair of cotton seeds. Jute fibres are obtained from the stems of jute plants by retting process.
Question 5.
Name two items that are made from coconut fibres.
Answer:
a. Ropes
b. Coir in mattresses
Question 6.
Explain the process of making yarn from fibre.
Answer:
The process of making yarn from fibres is called spinning. In this process, fibres from a mass of cotton wool are drawn out and twisted. This brings the fibres together to form a yam.
NCERT Extended Learning Activities and Projects
Question 1.
Visit a nearby handloom or power loom unit and observe the weaving or knitting of fabric.
Hint: Do it yourself.
Question 2.
Find out if any crop is grown in your region for obtaining fibre. If yes, what is it used for?
Hint: Do it yourself.
Question 3.
India has been a major producer of cotton and its fabric. India exports cotton fabrics and items to many other countries. Find out, how it helps us?
Hint: We export and import cotton fabrics so that we may make money and earn foreign currency. It helps in the development of the country and also used as income of a family.
Activity 1
Objective: To make yam from fibres.
Materials Required: Cotton wool.
Procedure:
- Take some cotton wool in one hand.
- Hold some cotton between the thumb and forefinger of the other hand.
- Gently start pulling out the cotton, while continuously twisting the fibres. We are able to make a yarn.
Observations: Twisting of fibres results in the formation of yarn.
Conclusion: Spinning converts fibres into yarn.
- Charkha was popularised by Mahatma Gandhi during independence movement. He promoted the use of a homespun fibre called khadi. To popularise khadi, the Indian Government Constituted Khadi and Village Industries Commission in 1956.
- Fabric: It refers to a woven material, a textile or other material resembling woven cloth. Fabric is made up of yarns. A fabric made by the two main processes known as weaving and knitting.
i. Knitting: The process in which a single yam is used to make a piece of fabric is called knitting. Knitting is done by hand by using knitting needles and also on machines.
Activity 2
Objective: To study the structure of various clothing materials.
Materials Required: One piece of each type of fabric such as cotton, polyester, silk, wool and a magnifying glass.
Procedure:
- Take each piece of cloth on the table.
- Observe each one of them with the help of a magnifying glass.
- Now try to pull out a thread with the help of a needle. This loose thread is called yarn.
Observations: All fabrics do not appear continuous. These appear to consist of very thin threads crossing each other at right angles. Conclusion: The fabric is made up of yarns arranged at right angles to each other.
ii. Weaving: The process of making a fabric by arranging yarns passing in one direction with other yams at right angles to them is called weaving.
Activity 3
Objective: To try weaving using paper.
Materials Required: Two square chart papers of different colours, scale, pen and scissors.
Procedure:
- Fold the square sheet in half.
- Cut evenly-spaced slits starting from the folded edge and continuing up to about half an inch from the opposite edge. It may be helpful to draw vertical lines to use as guide while you cut.
- Cut coloured paper strips. The strips should be longer than the length of your square’s side.
- Take one paper strip and weave it horizontally across the slits, going over and under the slits.
- Push the woven strip to the top and start with another one. The second strip should be woven in an opposite pattern as the first.
Observation: A pattern is obtained after weaving all the strips.
Conclusion: This demonstrates the process of weaving.
History of Clothing: In ancient times, people used to cover their body using bark and big leaves of trees, animal furs or animal fibres. Later, agricultural communities learnt to weave twigs and grass into mats and baskets. They twisted together animal fleece/ hair or vines into long strands. Early Indians wore cotton fabrics of cotton grown near Ganga river. In ancient Egypt, cotton and flax were cultivated near Nile river. Since, stitching was not known at that time, people used to drape fabrics in different ways. With invention of sewing needle, fabrics were now stitched into clothes. Today, stitched clothes have a wide variety or variations.
Clothing is Necessary: Clothing is necessary for protection against wind and weather, against injury, maintenance of body temperature and decoration of the body to look good.
Class 6 Science Chapter 3 Fibre to Fabric Additional Important Questions and Answers
Very Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
What are fabrics?
Answer:
Fabric is a cloth or other material produced by weaving cotton, nylon, wool, silk or other threads together.
Question 2.
What are yarns made of?
Answer:
Yams are made up of thin strands called fibres.
Question 3.
What material is used for making wicks for oil lamps?
Answer:
Cotton wool.
Question 4.
Where does cotton wool come from?
Answer:
Cotton wool comes from cotton bolls.
Question 5.
Define knitting.
Answer:
The process of making fabric by forming a series of connected loops of a single yam is called knitting.
Question 6.
In which region was the cotton crop grown in India in early days?
Answer:
The early Indians grew cotton crops in the regions near river Ganga to obtain cotton fibres.
Question 7.
Name two products obtained by weaving ‘twigs’ and ‘grasses’.
Answer:
Mats and baskets.
Question 8.
Name the two types of plants which were cultivated near the river Nile in ancient Egypt to obtain fibres for making fabrics.
Answer:
Cotton and flax crops were cultivated near the river Nile and their fibres were used for making fabrics.
Question 9.
Name one synthetic fibre.
Answer:
Polyester.
Question 10.
Which fabric is obtained from the stem of flax plant?
Answer:
Linen.
Question 11.
What are the fibres on the outer covering of coconut called?
Answer:
Coir.
Question 12.
Who encouraged people in India to wear clothes made of homespun yarn?
Answer:
Mahatma Gandhi.
Question 13.
Name the four types of fabrics which are still used in unstitched form in our country.
Answer:
Saree, dhoti, lungi and turban.
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
Why do we need clothes?
Answer:
We need clothes to protect our body from extreme weather conditions, like heat, cold, rain, etc. They protect us from harmful insects, bacteria, dirt, wind and injury. They protect us from foreign, harmful substances falling on our body. Clothes make us look presentable.
Question 2.
What are natural fibres? Explain with examples.
Answer:
The fibres which are obtained from plants and animals are called natural fibres. Fibres of fabrics like cotton, jute, silk, wool, etc., are natural fibres.
Question 3.
What are man-made fibres? Explain with examples.
Answer:
The fibres which are synthesised in industry from simple chemicals obtained from petroleum are called synthetic fibres. Fibres of polyester, nylon, acrylic etc., are synthetic fibres.
Question 4.
List the various steps involved in the preparation of fabrics.
Answer:
The following steps are involved in the preparation of fabrics:
- Obtaining fibre.
- Preparation of yarn from fibres by spinning.
- When two sets of yam are involved, yarns are woven on looms to make a fabric. When a single yam is used, the fabric is prepared by knitting.
Question 5.
Explain how jute is obtained from the jute plant.
Answer:
Jute is sown during the rainy season. The jute plant is normally harvested at flowering stage. The cut plants are allowed to dry in the sun for a few days. When most of the leaves dry and fall off, plants are now tied into small bundles. The bundles are made to sink in stagnant water of a pond for few days where the gummy skin rots out to separate fibres. This process is called retting. These fibres are converted into yams to make fabrics.
Question 6.
What happened to clothing when people began to settle in agricultural communities?
Answer:
When people began to settle in agricultural communities, then they learnt to weave twigs and grasses into mats and baskets. Vines, animal fleece or hair were twisted together into long strands. These strands were woven into fabrics.
Question 7.
When we burn wool, why do we get the smell of hair burn?
Answer:
Wool is an animal fibre. It is obtained from the fleece of sheep, goat, yak, etc. This is the reason why the smell of burning wool resembles that of burning hair.
Question 8.
How was clothing developed?
Answer:
In ancient times, people used to cover their body using bark and big leaves of trees, animal furs or animal fibres. Later, agricultural communities learnt to weave twigs and grasses into mats and baskets. They twisted together animal fleece/hair or vines into long strands. Early Indians wore cotton fabrics of cotton grown near Ganga river. In ancient Egypt, cotton and flax were cultivated near Nile river.
Since, stitching was not known at that time, people used to drape fabrics in different ways. With invention of sewing needle, fabrics were now stitched into clothes. Today, stitched clothes have a wide variety or variations.
Question 9.
What type of soil and climate are good for growing cotton? Name any two states of our country where cotton is mainly grown.
Answer:
Cotton is usually grown at places having black soil and warm climate. In India, cotton is mainly grown in the states of Maharashtra and parts of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
Question 10.
Differentiate between cotton and jute.
Answer:
Cotton is a white fibrous substance covering the seeds of cotton plant. Cotton plants are grown as a crop to obtain cotton. Cotton plants are usually grown at places having black soil and warm climate. Jute, on the other hand, is obtained from the stem of jute plant, often called Putson. Jute is mainly grown in West Bengal, Bihar and Assam.
Question 11.
Write some uses of jute.
Answer:
Jute fibres are used for making gunny bags, cheap rugs, carpets, curtains, coarse clothes, ropes, potato sacks, etc. Nowadays, fine quality of jute is used in making jute fabric.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
Describe the process of formation of yarn from cotton wool.
Answer:
Cotton fibres are obtained from the cotton plant. Fibres are obtained from the fruit, called boll, of the plant. When the boll matures, it splits exposing the raw cotton fibres. The heat of the sun dries the fibres. The dried bolls are harvested (i.e. picked) and cotton fibres are separated from the seeds. The process of separating cotton fibres from seeds is called ginning. It is done by hand or by machine. These fibres are then converted into yam by using spinning machines.
Question 2.
How will you differentiate between cotton, wool, silk and synthetic fabrics?
Answer:
We can differentiate between the cotton, wool, silk and synthetic fabrics by performing the burning test as follows: Take a small piece of the fabric to be tested. Pull out a fibre from it. Hold one end of the fibre with a pair of tongs and bring the other end of the fibre over the flame of a burner.
- If the piece of fabric bums vigorously giving a smell of burning paper, then it is cotton fabric.
- If the piece of fabric burns giving a smell of burning hair, then it is woollen fabric.
- If the piece of fabric bums giving the smell of charred meat, then it is silk fabric.
- If the piece of fabric bums giving the smell of burning plastic, then it is a synthetic fabric.
Question 3.
What is a loom? For what purpose is it used? What is the difference between handloom and power-loom?
Answer:
A device for making fabrics by weaving yarn or threads is called a loom. The weaving of the yarn to make fabrics is done by using looms.
- Handloom: It is a cloth weaving machine which is manually operated. In many parts of our country, handloom cloth is produced in large quantities.
- Power-loom: It is a medium-sized weaving machine run on power. It is used to produce cloth on large scale in cloth producing industry.
Question 4.
Name the plants and their parts used for making clothes.
Answer:
The following plants and their parts are used for making clothes:
- Cotton plants: Cotton fibres are obtained from their seeds. Their seeds have white fluffy fibres attached to them, wherefrom threads are made and then cloth is prepared.
- Jute plants: The stem of jute plant is removed and processed and then yam is prepared from them.
- Coconut: The fruits of coconut bear fibres which are used for preparing yam.
- Mango trees: The seeds of mango have fibres which are also used for preparing clothes.
Question 5.
Describe the process of spinning and weaving.
Answer:
Spinning: The process of making yarn from fibres is called spinning. In this process fibres from a mass of cotton wool are drawn out and twisted. By this, fibres come together to form a yarn. Spinning can be done by hand, by takli and charkha. On a large scale, spinning is done with the help of machines.
Weaving: The process of arranging two sets of yams together to make a fabric is called weaving. The process of weaving can be done on looms. The looms are either hand-operated or power-operated.
Picture-Based Questions
Question 1.
Identify the following picture and name who popularised the use of this device.
Answer:
The diagram shows a charkha. The use of charkha was popularised by Mahatma Gandhi.
Question 2.
a. Observe the following picture and tell what the woman is doing in the picture.
b. Name the device by which this process can be done.
Answer:
a. The woman is weaving fabrics on loom by hand.
b. This process can be done using hand-operated or power-operated looms.
Question 3.
Identify the following picture. Name the process.
Answer:
The process is knitting. It is used to convert a single yarn into fabric.