Question

The latitudinal and longitudinal extent of India is 30 degrees. Then why is the North-South extent longer than the East-West extent?

Answer 1

We know that the latitudinal and longitudinal extent of India are 30º. We also know the fact that North-South extent longer than the East-West extent. Have you wondered the reason behind it?

Longitudinal and Latitudinal extent

• The latitudinal extent of India from the north end Kashmir to south end Kanniyakumari is 37°6′N to 8°4′N
• The longitudinal extent of India from west end Gujarat to east end Arunachal Pradesh is 68°7′E to 97°25′E.
• On calculating both of these extents we get to that these are approximately of 30°.

Distance between the two ends

• The actual distance between the ends North and South is 3214 km.
• The distance between two ends east and west is 2933 km.

Why North-South extent longer than the East-West extent?

North-South extent longer than the East-West extent due to the following reasons:

• The distance between latitudes remain the same throughout but the distance between the two longitudes reduces as moved towards poles
• The distance between two latitudes is constant that is 111 km but the distance between two longitudes is 111 km at the equator and reduces to 0 at the poles.
• In other words, we can say that India’s north-south extent and distance remains unaltered
• The distance between the two longitudes decreases and the east-west extends has a U-shaped bending which actually reduces the actual east-west distance.

Hence, the lines of longitude come nearer and the East-West distance becomes less than the North-South distance.

Articles to Explore:

1. What is the latitudinal extent of India how does it influence our lives?
2. What is the difference between Latitude and Longitude?
3. What are parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude?