North-south and east-west distance of India
Topic: India: Location, Size, Extent and Divisions · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "India - Location"
Meaning
India is about 3,214 km long from north to south. It is only about 2,933 km wide from east to west. Yet both spans cover about 30 degrees. The reason lies in the grid of the globe. One degree of latitude is always about 111 km, because parallels (lines of latitude) are equally spaced. Meridians (lines of longitude) come closer together as you move towards the poles. So one degree of longitude gets shorter as you go north.
Example
At the equator, one degree of longitude is about 111 km. At about 23.5°N, near the Tropic of Cancer in Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh, it shrinks to about 102 km. So India's east-west span, from Guhar Moti in Gujarat to Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh, comes out shorter in kilometres.
Don't confuse with
- Degree extent: the mainland spreads from 8°4'N to 37°6'N and from 68°7'E to 97°25'E. That is about 30 degrees each way. The degrees are almost equal, but the kilometres are not.