Question

What are longitudinal and latitudinal exchange extension of earth?

Answer 1

Latitudinal and longitudinal extent of India is 30 degrees, then explain why is the north-south extent is bigger than east-west extent?

Ad by Unacademy

Enroll for UPSC courses today.

Unacademy’s tailormade courses comprehensively cover all the topics required to ace the UPSC examination.

Apply Now

7 ANSWERS



Ipshika Ghosh, studied Humanities and Social Sciences at Dav Public School Sector 14 Faridabad

Answered Mar 17, 2018

The latitudinal extent of India from Kashmir to Kanniyakumari is 37°6′N to 8°4′N and the longitudinal extent of India from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh is 68°7′E to 97°25′E. Both of these extent are approximately of 30° . But the actual distance from North to South is 3214 km , while from east to west is 2933 km.

That's because the distance between two latitudes remains the same throughout, but the distance between two longitudes keeps reducing as we move towards the poles. The distance between two latitudes is always 111 km, but the distance between two longitudes is 111 km at the equator and reduces to 0 at the poles. For clarification view any diagram of earth's latitudes and longitudes.

For easy understanding India's north- south extent and distance remains unchanged. But due to curvature of the earth and the decrease in distance between two consecutive longitudes, the east-west extent kind of bends like a 'U' which reduces the actual east-west distance while the east-west extent remains unchanged.

Hope it helps.