Latitude and longitude

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Contents

How can we locate places on a globe?

Lines of latitude

Lines of longitude

Using latitude and longitude

Summary activities

The key concepts covered are: Place and Space.

Latitude and Longitude


How can we locate places on the globe?

Learn what longitude and latitude are.

Learn how to locate a position on the surface of the globe.

By the end of this section, you will:

How can we locate places on the globe?


Locating places

The Earth is like a giant ball, so how can we describe where a point is on it?

Lines of latitude run in an east–west direction and allow us to say how far we are north or south.

Lines of longitude run from north to south and allow us to say where we are, east or west.

A system of lines is used to locate any place on the surface of the Earth.


40°

60°

0°

20°

What do these numbers mean?

Where is it?

Lines of latitude and longitude are essential to navigation.

How would you describe the exact location of Madrid?

You could say that it is the capital of Spain.

You could describe it as being in the centre of the country.

But to be most accurate you could give its latitude and longitude.

The position of Madrid is 40° 26' N and 3° 42' W.

Madrid


Lines of latitude

Understand that lines of latitude are equally spaced and parallel.

Learn where the Equator, the Poles, the Prime Meridian and the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are.


Lines of latitude


Lines of latitude are the equally spaced horizontal lines on a model globe and on the maps in an atlas.

Latitude

There are 89 of them to the north of the Equator and 89 to the south.

Where the 90th line would be are two points, the North and South Poles.

The Equator is the line of latitude around the middle of the Earth.

Sometimes these lines are called parallels because they are all aligned in one direction.


The equator and the poles

the Equator lies at 0°

Latitude is measured in degrees north or degrees south of the Equator:

the North Pole is found at 90°N

all other latitudes have a value between 0° and 90° north or south.

the South Pole is found at 90°S

North Pole

South Pole

Equator 0°

10°20°

30°40°

50°60°

70°80°

90°

90°


Arctic Circle (66° 30' N)

Antarctic Circle (66° 30' S)

Tropic of Cancer (23° 30' N)

Tropic of Capricorn (23° 30' S)

Tropics and Circles

Each east-west line represents an imaginary ring around the world. As you move towards the poles, these rings get smaller.

Certain latitudes have specific names:


Lines of latitude


Latitude names


Lines of longitude

Understand that lines of longitude circle the globe and know where the Prime Meridian is.

Contemplate the significance of Greenwich and establish the position of the International Date Line.


Lines of longitude


Lines of longitude or meridians are the vertical lines on a model globe and on the maps in an atlas.

PrimeMeridian

Longitude

These lines run around the Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole. They divide the world into 360°.

The Prime Meridian is the line of longitude that runs through Greenwich. It is the line of longitude at 0°.

0°


There are 180° of longitude to the west of the Prime Meridian and 180° to the east.

Meridians

0°30°60°

90°

120°

150°

180°

30°

60°

90°

120°150°

The 180° meridian is the exact opposite of the Prime Meridian. It can be called the Antimeridian.

The two meridians circle the world and divide it into east and west.


Why is the Prime Meridian at Greenwich?

In 1884, when the Prime Meridian was adopted as 0°, Britain was a world leader in exploration and map making.

Therefore, navigators from other nations often used British maps which had Britain at the centre.


Why is the Prime Meridian at Greenwich?

This is beneficial because time changes by an entire day when you cross the 180° meridian.

With the Greenwich Meridian set as 0° longitude, the 180° meridian runs through the Pacific Ocean and crosses only a small land area in north-eastern Asia and some island groups in the Pacific.

Pacific Ocean

If this meridian crossed a large country, timekeeping would be difficult.


To avoid confusion, the nations of the world established a special line across which dates change. It swerves from the 180° meridian whenever convenient.

This line is called the International Date Line.

International Date Line

The Date Line’s position has changed throughout its history. In 1867 the line moved from east of Alaska to west when the USA bought the state from Russia.



Describe the location of a place on the surface of the earth using latitude and longitude.

Know how to interpret geographical co-ordinates.




‘A’ is only in latitude and not longitude.

‘A’ is first in the alphabet and latitude is written first.

‘A’ is the first letter of across and lines of latitude go across.

How to write co-ordinates

Latitude and longitude values can be used as geographical co-ordinates to locate places accurately.

Find the latitude of a place.

Find the longitude of a place.

To give co-ordinates:

To remember that lines of latitude are always written first in co-ordinates and are drawn across maps, think of ‘A’.

Put the two values together with latitude first.


How can we find the position of the location marked as A?

A

N

Latitude and longitude co-ordinates

0

20

40

6080

0

20

40

60

802040

60

80

20 40

Find its latitude.

The latitude is 20°S. A is 20° south of the equator.

Find its longitude.

The longitude is 20°W. A is 20° west of the Prime Meridian.

Combine the values for latitude and longitude.

The latitude and longitude of A is 20°S 20°W.

Always write latitude values first.


Match the places with the correct latitude and longitude.

Latitude and longitude


Describing positions


Summary activitiesSummary activities

Be confident in your knowledge of what latitude and longitude are.

Know how to use and spell important terminology relating to latitude and longitude.



Summary quiz


Glossary


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Latitude and longitude