10th Science Book: NCERT Class 10 Science — Chapters, Sections and Official PDF

The NCERT 10th science book for Class 10 — the official Science textbook published by NCERT — is a single volume of 13 chapters across 217 printed pages, and every chapter’s official PDF is linked on this page.

Beyond the file, this page gives a measured map of the book: each chapter’s named sections, numbered figures, activities and question counts, with page ranges. That is what a PDF alone cannot show — which chapters are long, which are diagram-heavy, and where the exercise load concentrates.

Download the 10th Science Book (NCERT Class 10) — official PDF files

Every file in the table below is NCERT’s own PDF, hosted on ncert.nic.in — the same files the official site serves, free to download.

NCERT publishes this textbook as 13 separate chapter PDFs (jesc101 to jesc113), not as one whole-book file. Download the chapters you need; the table carries all 13.

NCERT Class 10 Science book at a glance

• 13 chapters across 217 printed pages
• 13 verified chapter PDFs from ncert.nic.in, linked above
• 156 named sections — the book’s own numbered headings
• 102 verified numbered figures indexed from the textbook
• 110 activities printed in the chapter bodies
• Chapter study pages for the chapters that have them, linked further down

Schools group the book’s chapters into the four subject areas a Class 10 student actually meets. The table below shows that grouping — it is the same map that answers the “Class 10 chemistry chapters” and “Class 10 physics chapters” question.

The four rows add up to the book’s totals: 217 pages, 156 sections and 102 figures.

What the numbers tell you

Longest vs shortest. Chapter 9 runs 27 pages and Chapter 11 runs 24, each more than four times the length of Chapter 8’s 6 pages. If you are mapping revision time, the long chapters are the ones to split across days.

Figure-heavy chapters. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 print 12 figures each, the book’s highest count; Chapter 12 packs 10 figures into just 13 pages, the densest diagramming in the volume. Chapter 8 prints none.

Activity-heavy chapters. Chapter 2 sets 15 activities and Chapter 9 sets 13 — the chapters where practical and viva revision has the most material to cover.

Question-heavy chapters. Chapter 11 closes with 41 questions, Chapter 5 with 34, Chapter 2 with 33 and Chapter 9 with 31; Chapter 8 has only 10.

What each chapter teaches — sections, figures and questions

Each column counts a different thing: a section is one of NCERT’s own numbered headings in the book, a figure is a numbered figure indexed from the textbook, an activity is a lab or observation task printed in the chapter body, and the questions column is the chapter’s question count as printed.

The walkthroughs below turn those counts into what each chapter actually covers.

Chapter 1: Chemical Reactions and Equations (pp. 1–16)

A complete chemical equation shows the reactants, products and their physical states in symbols, and it is balanced so the same number of atoms of each element appears on both sides. The reaction types named here are combination, decomposition, displacement, double displacement, oxidation and reduction. Two everyday effects of oxidation — corrosion and rancidity — close the chapter.

1. Chemical Equations (p. 2)
2. Types of Chemical Reactions (p. 6)
3. Have You Observed the Effects of Oxidation Reactions in Everyday Life? (p. 13)

With 12 named sections, 9 figures, 11 activities and 28 questions across 16 pages, this is the chapter that opens the chemistry block — balancing equations is the skill the next three chapters assume.

Chapter 2: Acids, Bases and Salts (pp. 17–36)

Indicators are dyes that signal whether a solution is acidic or basic. Acidity comes from \( \text{H}^+(aq) \) ions, basicity from \( \text{OH}^-(aq) \) ions, and the pH scale measures how strong a solution is.

Acids and bases neutralise each other to form salts; the chlor-alkali process makes useful chemicals from common salt, and some salt crystals hold water of crystallisation.

1. Understanding the Chemical Properties of Acids and Bases (p. 18)
2. What Do All Acids and All Bases Have in Common? (p. 22)
3. How Strong Are Acid or Base Solutions? (p. 25)
4. More About Salts (p. 28)

With 15 activities — the most in the book — alongside 10 figures, 16 named sections and 33 questions over 20 pages, this is the chapter with the heaviest lab-work load (metal plus acid, carbonate plus acid, pH testing).

Chapter 3: Metals and Non-metals (pp. 37–57)

Metals are lustrous, malleable, ductile and good conductors, with mercury the one liquid metal at room temperature. The reactivity series ranks metals by how readily they react with air, water and acids. Metals and non-metals form ionic compounds; extraction from ores follows the metal’s position in the series, and corrosion can be prevented.

1. Physical Properties (p. 37)
2. Chemical Properties of Metals (p. 40)
3. How Do Metals and Non-Metals React? (p. 46)
4. Occurrence of Metals (p. 49)
5. Corrosion (p. 53)

Its 20 named sections are the most of any chapter — with 11 figures, 14 activities and 30 questions across 21 pages, the extraction and refining sequence (pp. 49–53) is the part students most often reread.

Chapter 4: Carbon and its Compounds (pp. 58–78)

Carbon’s versatility comes from tetravalency and catenation. Because carbon shares electrons, its compounds are covalent — with low melting and boiling points and no electrical conductivity. Structures run from saturated and unsaturated chains to branches and rings, organised by a homologous series and a naming system. Ethanol and ethanoic acid are the named examples, and soaps clean through micelles.

1. Bonding in Carbon – the Covalent Bond (p. 58)
2. Versatile Nature of Carbon (p. 62)
3. Chemical Properties of Carbon Compounds (p. 69)
4. Some Important Carbon Compounds – Ethanol and Ethanoic Acid (p. 71)
5. Soaps and Detergents (p. 74)

12 figures tie it with Chapter 5 for the most diagrams in the book — electron-dot structures, ethene, benzene, micelles — alongside 12 activities, 16 named sections and 28 questions across 21 pages.

Chapter 5: Life Processes (pp. 79–99)

Movement of various kinds is a sign of life. Staying alive needs nutrition, respiration, transportation and excretion. Nutrition is autotrophic, through photosynthesis, or heterotrophic, including digestion in humans; respiration breaks glucose down by different pathways. In humans, blood and the heart transport materials, and the nephron is the working unit of excretion.

1. What Are Life Processes? (p. 79)
2. Nutrition (p. 81)
3. Respiration (p. 87)
4. Transportation (p. 91)
5. Excretion (p. 96)

With 12 figures (a share of the book’s highest count), 8 activities and 34 questions — second only to Chapter 11 — the human-system diagrams (alimentary canal, heart, nephron) are where most revision time goes.

Chapter 6: Control and Coordination (pp. 100–112)

Control and coordination run through the nervous system and hormones. Responses are reflex, voluntary or involuntary, with the reflex arc and the brain doing the fast work. Plants coordinate through immediate responses and growth movements, and animal hormones are listed with their effects.

1. Animals – Nervous System (p. 100)
2. Coordination in Plants (p. 105)
3. Hormones in Animals (p. 109)

A short chapter — 13 pages, 9 named sections, 5 figures, 4 activities and 26 questions — whose few diagrams (neuron, reflex arc, brain, endocrine glands) are the ones exam answers are built around.

Chapter 7: How do Organisms Reproduce? (pp. 113–127)

Reproduction keeps the species going rather than the individual. It begins with copying DNA and adding cell machinery, and the copying introduces variation. Single organisms reproduce by fission, fragmentation, regeneration, budding, vegetative propagation and spore formation. Sexual reproduction combines DNA from two parents — in flowering plants through pollination and fertilisation — and covers both human reproductive systems and reproductive health.

1. Do Organisms Create Exact Copies of Themselves? (p. 113)
2. Modes of Reproduction Used by Single Organisms (p. 115)
3. Sexual Reproduction (p. 119), including the male and female reproductive systems (pp. 123–124) and reproductive health

17 named sections in 15 pages make it the most section-dense chapter; with 9 figures, 7 activities and 23 questions, it runs from the asexual-mode diagrams (binary fission, budding, spore formation) to the human-reproduction diagrams.

Chapter 8: Heredity (pp. 128–133)

Variation accumulates during reproduction and can be inherited, and some variations improve survival. Sexually reproducing individuals carry two copies of each gene. Mendel’s rules describe how traits pass on, and a trait’s expression depends on dominant and recessive copies. In humans, sex is determined by the X and Y chromosomes.

1. Accumulation of Variation During Reproduction (p. 128)
2. Heredity (p. 129), covering Mendel’s contributions (p. 129), how traits get expressed (p. 131) and sex determination (p. 132)

The book’s thinnest chapter — 6 pages, 6 named sections, 2 activities, 10 questions and 0 figures — the work here is ratio-based (Mendel’s crosses), not diagram-based, which makes it the chapter to revise by writing out crosses.

Chapter 9: Light – Reflection and Refraction (pp. 134–160)

Light travels in straight lines; reflecting surfaces obey the laws of reflection. Spherical mirrors form real or virtual images depending on the object’s position, summarised by ray diagrams, a sign convention and the mirror formula. Refraction bends light between media, each pair having a refractive index. Lenses use the lens formula, magnification and power — the reciprocal of focal length.

1. Reflection of Light (p. 134)
2. Spherical Mirrors (p. 135)
3. Refraction of Light (p. 145)

The longest chapter in the book — 27 pages, 15 named sections, 13 activities, 7 figures and 31 questions — and with the mirror formula and lens formula it is one of the two numerical cores of the physics block.

Chapter 10: The Human Eye and the Colourful World (pp. 161–170)

The eye focuses by accommodation, with a near point of about 25 cm. Myopia, hypermetropia and presbyopia are corrected with suitable lenses. A prism refracts and disperses white light into its colours, which recombination can undo; atmospheric refraction explains the apparent position of stars, and the sky’s blue colour comes from scattering, whose visible sign is the Tyndall effect.

1. The Human Eye (p. 161)
2. Defects of Vision and Their Correction (p. 162)
3. Refraction of Light Through a Prism (p. 165)
4. Dispersion of White Light by a Glass Prism (p. 166)
5. Atmospheric Refraction (p. 168)
6. Scattering of Light (p. 169)

A 10-page chapter with 9 named sections, 6 figures, 2 activities and 16 questions that turns Chapter 9’s refraction into everyday phenomena — the rainbow, the blue sky, twinkling stars and the defects of vision.

Chapter 11: Electricity (pp. 171–194)

Current is a stream of electrons, taken conventionally opposite to electron flow. The SI units are the ampere, volt and ohm, and Ohm’s law links current and potential difference. Resistance depends on length, area and material, and resistors combine in series or parallel. Current through a resistor heats it — the heating effect that electric power and appliances use.

1. Electric Current and Circuit (p. 171)
2. Electric Potential and Potential Difference (p. 173)
3. Circuit Diagram (p. 174)
4. Ohm’s Law (p. 175)
5. Factors on Which the Resistance of a Conductor Depends (p. 177)
6. Resistance of a System of Resistors (p. 181)
7. Heating Effect of Electric Current (p. 188)
8. Electric Power (p. 191)

With 41 questions — the heaviest load in the book — across 24 pages, 11 named sections, 7 figures and 6 activities, this is where most of the numerical practice in the physics block sits; the series and parallel derivations (p. 181) are the section students come back to.

Chapter 12: Magnetic Effects of Electric Current (pp. 195–207)

A compass needle is a small magnet. A magnetic field surrounds a current-carrying conductor, mapped by field lines, and the right-hand thumb rule fixes its direction for a straight wire. Loops and solenoids concentrate the field, and a solenoid can magnetise a steel rod. A current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field feels a force given by Fleming’s left-hand rule.

1. Magnetic Field and Field Lines (p. 196)
2. Magnetic Field Due to a Current-Carrying Conductor (p. 197)
3. Force on a Current-Carrying Conductor in a Magnetic Field (p. 202)
4. Domestic Electric Circuits (p. 204)

10 figures across just 13 pages is the highest figure density in the book; with 8 named sections, 7 activities and 21 questions, the field-line patterns and the two hand rules carry the chapter.

Chapter 13: Our Environment (pp. 208–217)

An ecosystem’s components are interdependent. Producers make sunlight energy available, and energy is lost at each trophic level, so food chains stay short; food webs link many chains. Human activities affect the environment, the ozone layer is depleted by CFCs, and waste needs managing.

1. Eco-System — What Are its Components? (p. 208)
2. How Do Our Activities Affect the Environment? (p. 212)

The closing chapter — 10 pages, 5 named sections, 4 figures, 9 activities and 16 questions — where activities outnumber diagrams, and the energy-flow diagram (p. 211) is the figure most often reproduced in answers.

Chapter study pages

Use the chapter pages below when the directory has shown you which chapter you need.

How to use the NCERT Class 10 Science book

1. Start with the chemistry block, Chapters 1–4 (pp. 1–78). Balancing equations in Chapter 1 is the skill Chapter 2’s equations reuse, and Chapter 3’s reactions build on both. Chapter 4 (carbon) stands a little apart with its structural formulae.
2. Move to the biology block, Chapters 5–8 (pp. 79–133). These are diagram-led chapters, so revise by labelling the alimentary canal, heart and nephron in Chapter 5. The exception is Chapter 8 (Heredity, pp. 128–133) — 6 pages with 0 figures, revised by writing out Mendel’s crosses.
3. Then the numerical physics pair: Chapter 9 (Light, pp. 134–160) and Chapter 11 (Electricity, pp. 171–194). These carry the calculation load — the mirror and lens formula in Chapter 9, Ohm’s law, series-parallel and power questions in Chapter 11. Chapter 10 follows Chapter 9’s refraction into the eye and natural phenomena.
4. Close with the short chapters, 12 and 13. Chapter 12 (pp. 195–207) is 13 pages and figure-dense; Chapter 13 (pp. 208–217) is 10 pages and self-contained.
5. Use the activity column for practical and viva revision. Chapter 2 (15 activities) and Chapter 9 (13) carry the most lab work in the book.
6. Remember the limits of the book. Textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official CBSE syllabus for what this session tests. The end-of-chapter exercises are your working material, and the textbook does not print their answers.

Related NCERT book pages

This page is part of a larger directory of NCERT textbooks, kept class by class.

• NCERT books directory — the root of this site’s textbook index
• NCERT Class 10 books — the hub for this class
• NCERT Class 10 Mathematics book — the closest sibling subject at this level

Sources and data verification

This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.

• Where the facts come from: the section titles and figure captions on this page are quoted from NCERT’s Class 10 Science textbook (Science, official edition on ncert.nic.in), and page references are to the official chapter PDFs (jesc101–jesc113).
• What this page covers: the English edition of the NCERT Class 10 Science book and its 13 chapters. It does not cover the Hindi edition (Vigyan) or other boards’ Class 10 science books.
• Session: this listing is maintained for the current academic session using the NCERT information available to us.
• Who settles what: NCERT settles textbooks, editions and PDFs; CBSE settles the curriculum, syllabus and examinations. For what is examinable this session, check the current official CBSE syllabus.

Reference: NCERT Class 10 Science textbook, official edition on ncert.nic.in. Figure captions and section titles quoted from the textbook; page references are to the official PDF.

Frequently asked questions

How many chapters are in the NCERT Class 10 Science book?

13 chapters across 217 printed pages. The chemistry block is Chapters 1–4, biology is Chapters 5–8, physics is Chapters 9–12, and Chapter 13, Our Environment, closes the book.

Is the Class 10 Science book PDF on this page official and free?

Yes — every PDF in the download table is NCERT’s own file, hosted on ncert.nic.in, and NCERT makes these files free to download. The book is distributed as 13 chapter PDFs (jesc101 to jesc113), so you take the chapters you need rather than one whole-book file.

Which chapter covers electricity, the human eye, heredity and our environment?

Electricity is Chapter 11 (pp. 171–194), The Human Eye and the Colourful World is Chapter 10 (pp. 161–170), Heredity is Chapter 8 (pp. 128–133), and Our Environment is Chapter 13 (pp. 208–217). Each chapter ends with a “What You Have Learnt” recap that summarises those topics.

Does NCERT publish the Class 10 Science book in Hindi?

Yes — the NCERT Class 10 Science book in Hindi is published as Vigyan, alongside the English Science textbook. This page covers the English edition, and the official NCERT site hosts both.

What are Science 1 and Science 2 — are they the NCERT Class 10 Science book?

No. Science 1 and Science 2 are Maharashtra State Board textbooks for Class 10, not the NCERT book. The NCERT Class 10 Science book is a single volume of 13 chapters covering chemistry, biology and physics.