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.
