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When it is 12 noon by Indian Standard Time, what is the time at Greenwich?

  1. A.5:30 am
  2. B.6:30 am
  3. C.5:30 pm
  4. D.6:30 pm

Correct answer

B. 6:30 am

Explanation

The correct answer is B, 6:30 in the morning. Indian Standard Time is the local time of 82 degrees 30 minutes east. Multiplying 82.5 degrees by four minutes gives 330 minutes, that is five hours and thirty minutes, and since India lies east of Greenwich its clock is ahead by that much. Subtracting five and a half hours from 12 noon leaves 6:30 am.

Option A, 5:30 am, would follow from an offset of six and a half hours, which belongs to no Indian meridian. Options C and D place Greenwich ahead of India, reversing the rule that places to the east see the sun first and therefore run ahead. The direction is the part most often lost in the exam hall, so fix it with a simple sentence: east is ahead, west is behind. The same calculation in reverse tells you that noon at Greenwich is 5:30 in the evening in India.

Read the full article: Latitudes, Longitudes and Time: Grid, IST and Date Line

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Q1.GeographyEasy

Indian Standard Time is based on which meridian?

  1. A.75 degrees east
  2. B.82 degrees 30 minutes east
  3. C.88 degrees 30 minutes east
  4. D.90 degrees east
Show answer
Correct answer: B. 82 degrees 30 minutes east

This meridian passes near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh and runs roughly through the middle of the country, so it was adopted as the standard meridian of India.