UPSC Prelims 2018 · Question 29 of 99
UPSC Prelims 2018 question on Delhi Longitude Bengaluru
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2018
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectGeography
- TopicIndian Geography
- DifficultyMedium
- TypeDirect
Among the following cities, which one lies on a longitude closest to that of Delhi?
Show answer
Answer: A. Bengaluru
Analysis
Bengaluru lies closest to Delhi's longitude, so the answer is (a).
Delhi sits at about 77.10 degrees East and Bengaluru at about 77.59 degrees East, a difference of roughly half a degree, so the two lie almost on the same meridian. Hyderabad is at about 78.49 degrees East and Nagpur at about 79.09 degrees East, both further east than Bengaluru. Pune, at about 73.86 degrees East, is over three degrees to the west, and is the option most likely to mislead anyone reasoning from a mental map that places western cities near Delhi.
Source
Atlas.
How to crack it
The reasoning chain here is that longitude is an east to west measure, so mentally drop a vertical line through Delhi and ask which city it passes nearest, ignoring how far south the city lies. Bengaluru feels distant from Delhi only because the separation is in latitude. Practise this by tracing a few meridians through your atlas and listing the cities each one crosses, since UPSC returns to the Delhi meridian repeatedly and the same drill answers time zone questions too.