Latitude and Longitude - ClassZone

1 Latitude and LongitudeThe locations of places on Earth are pinpointed through a grid of imaginarylines that cartographers have placed over the planet. This grid, called thegraticule, divides up the planet and gives each point a unique andunchangeable address. First, Earth is divided into halves, or Earth isspherical, the hemispheres can be north and south or east and west. Theequatoris the imaginary line dividing the Northern and SouthernHemispheres. The Eastern and Western Hemispheres are divided by theprime meridian (0 ) and, opposite it on the globe, the 180 meridian.

2 46 Unit 1 Investigating EarthThe prefix hemi-comes from Greekand means half. A hemisphere is half a sphere. one place at many :ES0302 LATITUDE90 S90 NSouth PoleNorth Pole30 N60 N0 30 S60 SArctic CircleTropic of CapricornTropic of CancerEquatorAntarctic Circle60 W30 W30 E60 E90 W90 E30 N30 S60 S60 N0 90 NArctic CircleTropic of CapricornTropic of CancerEquatorAntarctic Circle90 SSouth PoleNorth PoleLONGITUDEThe equator is a latitudeline. Latitude lines, or parallels, circle the worldfrom east to west parallel to the equator.

3 Latitude is measured in degreesnorth or south of the equator. The equator has a Latitude of 0 . The NorthPole s Latitude is 90 north; the South Pole s, 90 prime meridian is a longitudeline. Longitude lines, or meridians,are half-circles that run from north to south between the poles. Longitude ismeasured in degrees east or west of the prime meridian, which passesthrough Greenwich, England, and has the value of 0 Longitude . Longitudelines can be numbered from 0 to 180 east or west. The United States liesbetween 65 and 125 west Longitude .

4 India lies on the 80 east Longitude degree of Latitude or Longitude is further divided into 60 minutes(written ) and each minute into 60 seconds (written ). This system allowsyou to pinpoint a location on Earth Scales How do you know the size of the area you re looking at on a map? Is thebody of water in the middle of the map a pond, a lake, or a sea? Withoutsome idea of the size of the landforms a map is depicting, the map isuseless; there is no way to judge size or distance. That is why map scalesare vital. The scale of a map tells you how themap s features compare in size with Earth s surface.

5 This comparison isusually shown as a ratio, such as one inch on the map is equal to one mileon Earth. A map can be a large-scale map, which shows a small area ofEarth s surface, or a small-scale map, which shows a large area.