India longitudes, latitudes and Indian Standard Time

India Location

India is the world's seventh-largest country. The first six are Russia, China, United States, Brazil, and Australia.

India has an area of 3.28 million sq. km and it is 2.4 percent of the world's land surface area. India shares borders with seven countries Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar, and has two island neighbour countries Sri Lanka and the Maldives

The mainland of India extends from Kashmir in the North to Kanniyakumari in the South and Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Gujarat in the west.

What are longitudes and latitudes?

We can go to any location using the longitudes and latitudes of the world. Even our map apps also use longitudes and latitudes to get to any pin location. Earth's shape is actually closer to an ellipsoid. Thus, the longitudes and latitudes are measured in degrees as degrees are parts of circles.

    Each degree is further divided into minutes (') and each minute into seconds (").

Longitudes

• Imaginary vertical lines running from the North Pole to the South Pole.
• These lines of reference are called the meridian of Longitude, and the distance between them is measured in 'degree of longitude'
• Each degree is further divided into minutes, and minutes to seconds
• Distance between them decreases steadily pole-wards until it becomes Zero at the Poles, where all the meridians meet.
• All meridians are of equal length. so, all countries decided that the count should begin from the Meridian which passed through Greenwich, where the British Royal Observatory is located. This meridian is called Prime Meridian.
• The 0° longitude and 180° meridian divide the earth into two equal halves. The Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere.

Latitude

• Imaginary horizontal parallel lines running from East to West, forming circles around the Earth.
• Parallel to the Equator. The Equator is the line of 0° latitude.
• Distance between them remains parallel.
• With 90° north of the Equator and 90 degrees south of the Equator. The latitude of the North Pole is 90°N, and the latitude of the South Pole is 90°S. 

India's longitude and latitude

India is a vast country and lies in the Northern hemisphere. 

• India's northern boundary extends upto 37°6'N latitude
• Western boundary extends upto 68°7'E longitude
• Eastern boundary extends upto 97°25'E longitude
• Southern boundary of India's mainland extends upto 8°4'N latitude
• Southern boundary of India, which is Indira Point, extends upto 6°45'N latitude in the Bay of Bengal.

        (Indira point, a village in the Nicobar district at Great Nicobar Island of  Andaman and Nicobar Island of India, is the southernmost point of India's territory).

From the value of India's latitude, it is understood that the southern part of the country lies within the tropics and the northern part lies in the sub-tropical zone or the warm temperate zone.  This location is responsible for large variations in landforms, climate, soil types, and natural vegetation in the country.

 

The latitudinal and longitudinal extent of the mainland of India is approximately 30° (37°6'N- 8°4'N and  97°25'E-68°7'E) but the actual distance measured from north to south extremity is 3,214 km, and that from east to west is only 2,933 km. HOW?

India lies north of the Equator and lies to the east of the Greenwich line (Prime Meridian/0°) which means India lies in the northeastern hemisphere of the Earth and as we know that the distance between two latitudes remains the same everywhere. whereas the distance between two longitudes decreases towards the poles and becomes zero at 0 degrees.

This is why the extent of India's longitude and latitudes is roughly 30 degrees but the difference in the distance from north to south and east to west is 281km. (3,214 km-2,933km).

Indian Standard Time (IST)

India's longitudinal extent is nearly 30 degrees and causes a time difference of nearly two hours between the easternmost and the westernmost parts of our country. Hence, the need for Indian Standard Time comes in.

Indian Standard Time (IST), is the time zone observed throughout India, with a time offset of UTC+5:30, and is based on a longitude of 82°30' (center of 97°25'E and 68°7'E).

When it is 12:00 at Greenwich (0°) in India the time will be 5:30° cause 1 degree is equal to 4 minutes.

8221​oE * 4 = 330 minutes means 5:30 and +5:30 is because sun rises in te east and India is in east 

of Greenwich. Sun will rise 5:30 hours earlier in India.

The standard meridian of India passes through the following states:

• Uttar Pradesh
• Madhya Pradesh
• Chhattisgarh
• Orissa
• Andhra Pradesh