The Longitude and Latitude Song

• http://www.geographyalltheway.com/ks3_geography/maps_atlases/longitude_latitude.htm

Latitude/Longitude and Absolute Location

Latitude (Parallels)

• imaginary lines that go around the globe in an east-west direction.

• are circles around the globe (world) that never cross each other.

Latitude (Parallels)

• describes your position, north or south in relation to the equator.

• the equator is at 0 degrees latitude (this means it is in the middle of the globe).

• the North Pole at 90 degrees north and the South Pole at 90 degrees south.

• each degree of latitude is 110 km apart.

Label the important lines on this globe

Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn

Longitude (Meridians)

• are imaginary lines that go around the globe (world) that all cross each other at the North and the South Poles.

Longitude (Meridians)• is measured in degrees east or west of the prime

meridian. • one half of the world is measured in degrees of east

longitude up to 180°, and the other half in degrees of west longitude up to 180°.

Western and Eastern Hemispheres

If you are East of the Prime Meridian, you are in the Eastern Hemisphere, if you are West of the Prime Meridian you are in the Western Hemisphere.

Questions:

1. If you are 35˚East of the Prime Meridian, what hemisphere are you in?

2. If you are 100˚West of the Prime Meridian, what hemisphere are you in?

3. If you are 190˚ West of the Prime Meridian, what hemisphere are you in?

4. Are lines of longitude parallel to each other?

5. Where do all the longitude lines cross?

and

Questions:

1. If you are 35˚East of the Prime Meridian, what hemisphere are you in? Eastern Hemisphere

2. If you are 100˚West of the Prime Meridian, what hemisphere are you in? Western Hemisphere

3. If you are 190˚ West of the Prime Meridian, what hemisphere are you in? East

4. Are lines of longitude parallel to each other? No5. Where do all the longitude lines cross?

North Pole and South Pole

Absolute Location

• Now that you know what lines of latitude (parallels) and lines of longitude (meridians) are, you can find any place in the world simply by reading its absolute location.

• If you show all the meridians and parallels on a globe you will see they make a GRID.

Absolute Location

• is a way to describe where something is by telling someone how many degrees north or south from the equator it is and how many degrees east or west from the prime meridian it is.

• latitude is always first, and longitude is always last.

Absolute Location

is measured in degrees (°) and looks like this:

Beijing 39˚N, 116˚ E.

Beijing is 39˚ North and

116˚ East of the Prime Meridian.

Finding Absolute Location

Terry Fox: A National HeroTerrance Stanley "Terry" Fox, (July 28, 1958 – June 28, 1981) was a Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer treatment activist. He became famous for the Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research, which Fox ran with one prosthetic leg. He is considered one of Canada's greatest heroes and is celebrated internationally every September as people participate in the Terry Fox Run, the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. In 2004, Terry Fox was voted 2nd place on the The Greatest Canadian.