VOCABULARY TO KNOW:
LATITUDE: (think “Flatitude”) are lines that move in east-west circles around the globe
PARALLELS: another word for latitude
EQUATOR: 0 degrees latitude, a parallel in the middle of the globe
NORTH POLE: 90 North is the farthest latitude north of the Equator
SOUTH POLE: 90 South is the farthest latitude South of the Equator
LONGITUDE: lines that move in north-south circles around the globe
MERIDIAN: another word for longitude
PRIME MERIDIAN: 0 degree longitude, runs through Greenwich, England
Know this about Latitude:
From the equator to either pole is a quarter of a circle- since a circle has 360 degrees, from the Equator to a pole has to be 90 degrees. (360 divided by 4!)
At each of these degrees, we can draw an imaginary line around the Earth. Near the equator they are longer than near the poles, but they all have two things in common:
1: they go all the way around the Earth
2: they are parallel to the Equator
Each degree is approximately 69 miles
It is necessary to add N or S, so that it is clear if you are north of the Equator moving toward the North Pole, or south of the Equator moving to the South Pole
The problem with latitude alone we can tell how far from the Equator we are, but we can’t tell where we are on that Latitude. We could be at 45 degrees north and be in the Atlantic, the Pacific, in Europe, Asia or the USA. This is why we need…….LONGITUDE
Know this about Longitude:
Geographers started at a random point, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England and decided that a line drawn from North Pole to South Pole through the observatory would be called ZERO DEGREES of LONGITUDE (also called MERIDIANS) and that 0 degrees would be called the PRIME MERIDIAN
Meridian means mid-day and at mid-day in Greenwich, the sun is over the Prime Meridian
The Earth was then divided up by 360 evenly spaced lines running from pole to pole. These were degrees of Longitude
If you start at zero and go one degree East, you are at one degree east longitude.
Now..
To identify your location, you simply need to give a LATITUDE and a LONGITUDE. If you are 20 degrees north of the Equator, and 20 degrees east of Greenwich, you would say TWENTY DEGREES NORTH LATITUDE, TWENTY DEGREES EAST LONGITUDE, or simply as
20 N, 20E
And remember to say your LATITUDE FIRST!
Comments