Units of Longitude and Latitude

Meridians
Parallels of Latitude
Longitude and latitude projected onto a flat map.

Longitude
The demarcation of the longitude coordinate is done with
lines going up and down are called the meridians. A figure
to the right shows a few meridians. Longitude ranges from
0 to 180 East and 0 to 180 West. The longitude angle is
measured from the center of the earth as shown in the
earth graphic to the right.
The zero point of longitude is defined as a point in Greenwich, England called the Prime Meridian. (Why
Greenwich of all places?) 180 away from the Prime Meridian is the line called the International Date Line.
Unlike the Prime Meridian, the International Date line isn't straight for political/social reasons.

Latitude
Arctic Circle

6633 N

Tropic of Cancer

2327 N

Equator

Tropic of Capricorn

2327 S

Antarctic Circle

6633 S

The demarcation of the latitude coordinate is done with circles on the globe parallel to the equator. These
parallel circles, fittingly enough, are called parallels of latitude. The figure to the right shows several parallels
of latitude. Latitude goes for 0 at the equator to +90 N at the North Pole or -90 S at the South Pole where
the angle is also measured from the center of the earth as shown in the earth graphic to the right.
There are a few named parallels of latitude. The reason for their definition is is explored in the Seasons and
Ecliptic Simulator.

Degrees, Minutes, Seconds

The primary unit in which longitude and latitude are given is degrees (). There are 360 of longitude (180 E
180 W) and 180 of latitude (90 N 90 S). Each degree can be broken into 60 minutes (). Each minute
can be divided into 60 seconds (). For finer accuracy, fractions of seconds given by a decimal point are used.
A base-sixty notation is called a sexagesimal notation.

1 = 60 = 3600
For example, a spot of ground in upstate New York can be designated by 43227 N, 771430.60 W.
Sometimes instead of using minutes and seconds to measure the fraction of a degree, a decimal value is

used. With such a convention the coordinates above are 43.040833 N, 77.241833 W. The first number was
converted by taking the minutes divided by 60 and the seconds divided by 3600 and adding them together.
That is: 43.040833 = 43 + 2 (1/60) + 27 (1/3600).