Name _

1-2Date _

UNDERSTANDING AND USING LATITUDE

What Is Latitude? How Is It Measured?

1. Lines of latitude are imaginary lines thatrun completely around the globe-full cir-cles. If you travel along any of these lines youare going east or west.2. The equator is numbered 0 degrees or 0".The equator divides the world into twohalves or hemispheres: the Northern Hemi-sphere and the Southern Hemisphere. Allplaces that are north of the equator are saidto have north latitude. All places south of theequator are said to have south latitude. So,place A on the diagram below is on the 10°north latitude line. A simple way to write 10°north is lOc:N".

Place C is on the lOC south latitude line.or 10cS. What is the latitude of Place B?

from 0°, the equator, the lines of latitude arenumbered north and south to 90°. The NorthPole is 90':-N,and the South Pole is 90':-8.5. Here is an opportunity to practice findingthe latitudes of a number of places. Place Ahas been given its latitude to help you getstarted.

N P

_______________ Your answer should be200N. What is the latitude of place D?

I 90'80' ~ -...........80'

70' ./ ·A .~ 70'600/ " 60'500/

org'\ 50

00 I .( \401 .- 0 \I .E \

~

·G H0\

.•.'3

0\ J I 14500\ /~O'

60~/;~

"--K I 7. 60'

700 <, /" 70'800 ---- --' 80'

I 0

430200

10·o·10·20·30

40

N00 0300 R200 T100 H00 -

100 S200 000 U

00 TH

_______________ If you wrote 20cS youwere correct.

N NorthernC HemlsphereRT 200

A B 200

H 100 I 10'o· EQUATOR O'S 100 10'C ~O' 0 200

UTH

3. All lines of latitude are parallel. Thismeans that no matter how far two lines of lat-itude are extended they would never meet. So,on the diagram above you can see that theequator, the lOoNline of latitude and the 100Sline of latitude are parallel. In fact. some-times lines of latitude are called parallels.4. To prevent maps from becoming too clut-tered with lines, map makers show only a fewlines of latitude, generally 10 or 20 degreesapart.

The diagram in the next column showslines of latitude that are 10° apart. Starting

80C~A: __ --=-::........::... _ G: _

B: _ H: _

C: _ 1:

D: _ J:

K: _

F: L: _

6. You can easily determine how many de-grees separate one place from another place.For example. B is on the 60G

:\" line of lati-tude; C is on the 400N line of latitude. Bysubtracting we find that B is :200 furthernorth than C.

How many degrees of latitude separate:

E: _

C from D? _

E from F? _

r> - U'1'J trom __. _

C from I? -

1-4~a~e _ Date _

LOCATI~G PLACES WITH LI~ES OF LO~GITUDE

The exercises on this page will help yougain skill in locating places by longitude, andhemispheres. Later, you will apply yourknowledge of both latitude and longitude tolocate places around the world.1. The lines of latitude on the diagram beloware 15° apart. Notice that some of the linesare not numbered, that there are blank boxeson those lines. Study the numbers on theother lines, then print the proper numbers inthe boxes.2. What are the longitudes of the followingpoints shown on the map? Remember: Youmust write E for east, or W for west to prop-er ly identify the location.

Point D? _

3. How many degrees of longitude are therebetween:15°E and 45°E? _

300W and 900W? _

300E and 300W? _

4. Every place on earth is in two hemi-spheres (except for places on the prime me-ridian, 180° line of longitude, the equator orat the North and South Poles).

In what two hemispheres is:

Point H? _G

H

I

A

B

C

D

E

F

Point G? _

Point C? _c.Co<:!::

.;:: N

s

1-6NaIDe _ Date _

LOCATING PLACES WITH LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

1800 165' 1500 135' 1200 IDS' 100 75' liD' 45' 3D' IS' 0' IS' 3D' 45' 600 75' 90' IDS' 120' 135' ISO' 165' 180'

200

100

00

100

200

300

I=>c:o ~b~ .I~ j Ie t ~~?~ ~~

~

"c"i.~

~ IJ :? ..M D PC) 80,10' It \ & //J ~I {[j j

or P)"..~~ »<. .~ .JV' :-, ~

70

~~ ~I~ -ldiv

'~ ~ _...•11~- v

~.::.- - --i }:-c "-- ~ t?- (IIcE - - - ~- - -~P 7 ~,~ .};? ~<I ,ro/J.. Lr'I~ r\ •..

J1~ ~ R ~ ,UI 60

~ ~ M l'-1 ~J' ~

i."-l. c:: ~I~ p !J ~ 150

~~ 1~ ~...J. .r e 40';1\ r c V-D ~ w '1>#,',/ I Ir"\" I . ~' ,

-~ -{- -~ -~- \\-!~ ~ -~- ~~I 30

1-- -- - - - -1 - - -- -J-"'T-~--, 20~ ~ ~ .r I)f' I) ~. 1 1 1'-. 10J r-, 1 1"- t-"l i V v

~ ,/~f:oor- II

0'\ I~I 1 \ \ (! - .. ~'"'J ,=--fl I U)n I I V h'\i10

( 1 20- - - "-- ~- - - - '1- "- -J 1-<"'-1- -1-1-- -1f-~-!- - - 1- 1t- ~ o-r30y K I p I 1'--'"' I I Lf" U It';I I 40

51 I I,

1I i ! 1

~+8 161I I 50~ .. ••I I I I niE WORLD I II I 60

~# ~"J_ t- _1_ r - _1_ Mercator Projection I I- - - - - - - - - - r -i- l - t - r -1-,- I--1 I 1 1 1 70

400

600

700

1.00 185' ISO' 135' 1200 IDS' SO' 75' 60' 45' 3D' IS' 0' IS' 3D' 45' 60' 75' 90' IDS' 120' 135' ISO' 165' 180'

If friends say to you that they will meetyou on Main Street, your first question willprobably be, "Where on Main Street:"

Your friends might then reply, "We'llmeet you at Main Street and Cherry Street."Then you would know exactly where to go.

Similarly, it is not enough to say, "Thecity is somewhere on latitude 40oN." Youhave to know where on 40oN. In map readingyou would give the number of the line of lon-gitude that crosses 400N. Thus, as you cansee on the map there is a large X at the pointwhere 400N is crossed by 300W.

When writing latitude and longitudepositions it is important to include N or S, Eor W. 100S, for example, is a different linethan lOON; 900W is a different line than900E.

2. Print a G at lOON- 75"E.

Print an H at 60"S - l20~W.

Print a J at 0° - 0°.

3. Challenge: Find the position.

a. Start at 400S - l500W.

b. Move eastward 30°.

c. Move southward 20°.

d. Move eastward 15". Print a dot and theletter T where the lines of latitude and lon-gitude cross.Using Latitude and Longitude Together

1. What letter is at: e. What is the position? ---------

1-7NaDle _ Date _

USING LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE TO MEASURE DISTANCESEAST AND WEST

The equator, which is numbered 0°, circles the Earth. That circle-the equator-is approx-imately 2S,000 miles around. As in any circle, the equator circle included, there are 360 unitsofmeasurement called degrees. Each degree oflongitude that crosses the equator is approximately70 miles east-west. You can see that a degree has been set off on the diagram below.

00

00

15°=1050 miles

Practice in computing distances on theequator:

1. What is the distance in miles on the equa-tor from 0° longitude to 300W? Answer:30° X 70 miles = 2,100 miles.

2. How many miles on the equator is it from:

b. 200W - 300W? _

d. lSoW - lS"E? _

f. SoW - 15~E? _

.--'

-.-

~

.-

<

00 -'-

-~.

:.:::

--~

~aEne _

1-8Date _

USI~G LATITUDE AND LO~GITUDE TO MEASURE DISTANCESEAST A~D WEST-~ORTH A~D SOUTH

The equator is 25,000 miles long. How-ever, not all lines of latitude are the samedistance around the Earth. This is becausethe lines of latitude get shorter and shorteras they approach the North and South Poles.For example, the 300N line and the 300S lineare about 21,600 miles long. If we divide21,600 by 360°, we find that one degreeequals 60 miles.

The diagram below shows the number ofmiles in one degree of longitude on certainlines of latitude.

1· = 12 Mi.

80. (. 1· E 24 Mi.7O._t'"4.300 Mi"s~O 70.

60·.... ~ ,,·60·~.640Mi. -" ~~,

50· '!>" .••••50·/ \<-- ,1.600 Mi. ~ ~'" <,

40· ~" '\40·I ~ 16.200 Mi. ~ ,. ~ \

30· 30·

I \20· 20·

I \

o·~0,," 9~i."1"0 ~ 24.800 Mi. -? ,. E f>

10· 19 ~ ,0 ~i. 10·

~2S.000Mi.~ ~20· 20.

~ ~~ ~

~~

Practice in Finding Distances onVarious Lines of Latitude

Use the diagram at the top of the nextcolumn to find the answers to the followingquestions.

1. How many miles is it from A to B? An-swer: A degree on the 50"N line of latitude is45 miles. There are 30° between A and B, so.30° x 45 miles = 1,350 miles.

2. How many miles is it from:

~_ a. C to D? _

.iL b. K to L?~~- ----is,

c. F to G? _

d. M to K? _

Finding Distances on Linesof Longitude

Just as the equator is about 25,000miles around, so are all the lines of longi-tude. Therefore, every degree of latitude on aline of longitude is about 70 miles.

On the map above there are 10° of lati-tude between G and H. To find the distancein miles between these two places simplymultiply 10° x 70 miles, or 700 miles.

Complete the table below so that it willshow the distances between places on the dia-gram.

Number of Line DistanceI

i ,I Places of Longitude in Miles I! F to L

I

I II A to K !,

G to H II

I ,; !E to M !

B to N i