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Latitude And Longitude
Is It Latitude or Longitude? Learn How to Remember the Difference
A Simple Memory
Trick Is All You Need
by
Matt Rosenberg
Lines of longitude and latitude are part of the grid system that
helps us navigate the Earth, but it can be difficult to remember which is
which.
There is an easy memory trick that anyone can use to keep the
two geography terms straight.
Just Remember the Ladder
Next time you are trying to remember the difference
between degrees of
latitude and longitude, just think of a ladder.
The latitude lines are the rungs and the longitude lines are the
"long" lines that hold those rungs together.
Latitude lines
run east and west.
Just like rungs on a ladder, they remain parallel as they run
across the earth's surface. In this way, you can easily remember that latitude
is just like "ladder"-tude.
In the same manner, you can remember that lines
of longitude run north to south because they are
"long."
If you are looking up a ladder, the vertical lines appear to
meet at the top. The same can be said for longitude lines, which converge as
they stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole.
How to Remember Latitude and
Longitude in Coordinates
Coordinates are often expressed as two sets of numbers.
The first number is always the latitude and the second is the
longitude.
It easy to remember which is which if you think of the two
coordinates in alphabetical terms: latitude comes before longitude in the
dictionary.
For example, the Empire State Building lies at 40.748440°,
-73.984559°. This means that it is approximately 40° north of the equator and
74° west of the prime meridian.
When reading coordinates, you will also come across negative and
positive numbers.
· The equator is 0° latitude. Points north of the equator are
expressed with positive numbers and points to the south are expressed as
negative numbers. There are 90 degrees in either direction.
· The prime meridian is 0° longitude. Points to the east are
expressed as positive numbers and points to the west are expressed as negative
numbers. There are 180 degrees in either direction.
If positive and negative numbers are not used, the coordinates
may include the letter for the direction instead. That same location for the
Empire State Building may be formatted like this: N40° 44.9064', W073°
59.0735'.
But wait, where did that extra set of numbers come from?
This last example of coordinates is commonly used when
reading a GPS and the second numbers (44.9061' and 59.0735') indicate
the minutes, which helps us pinpoint the exact latitude
and longitude of a location.
How Does Time Factor Into
Latitude and Longitude?
Let's take a look at latitude because it is the easier of the
two examples.
For each 'minute' that you travel north of the equator, you will
travel 1/60th of a degree or about 1 mile. That is because there are approximately 69
miles between degrees of latitude (rounded down to 60 to make
the examples easier).
In order to get from 40.748440 degrees to an exact 'minute'
north of the equator, we need to express those minutes. That is where that
second number comes into play.
· N40° 44.9064' can be translated as 40 degrees and 44.9064
minutes north of the equator
3 Common Formats of Coordinates
We have reviewed two formats that coordinates can be given in,
but there are actually three.
Let's review all of them using the Empire State Building
example.
· Degrees Alone (DDD.DDDDDD°): 40.748440°
(positive number, so this indicates degrees north or east)
· Degrees and Minutes (DDD° MM.MMMM'): N40°
44.9064' (direction with degrees and minutes)
· Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (DDD°
MM.MMMM' SS.S"): N40° 44' 54.384"
(direction with degrees, minutes, and seconds)
Matt
Rosenberg
Award-winning
professional geographer
Author
of two books on geography
Experience
Matt
Rosenberg is a former writer for ThoughtCo. He covered geography for ThoughtCo
and About.com for over 20 years. He was an adjunct professor of geography at
California State University, Sacramento, a city planning and GIS intern
for local government, and is a former newspaper columnist.
Rosenberg
has been featured on PBS and NPR, and he has conducted many interviews about
geographical topics for television, radio, and newspapers. He was director of
emergency services for the American Red Cross and served on more than two dozen
major disaster relief operations around the United States. He has traveled
widely across North America and has visited or studied in Europe, Asia, Africa,
and the Middle East. He is a member of the Association of American Geographers and
the National Council for Geographic Education.
Education
Matt
Rosenberg holds a bachelor's degree in geography from the University
of California, Davis and a master's degree in geography from California
State University, Northridge.
Publications
"The Handy Geography Answer Book" (Barnes & Noble,
2004)
"The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook"
(Three Rivers Press, 2002)
Awards
Excellence
in Media Award, National Council for Geographic Education, October 2006
ThoughtCo
and Dotdash
ThoughtCo is a premier
reference site focusing on expert-created education content. We are one of the
top-10 information sites in the world as rated by comScore, a leading Internet
measurement company. Every month, more than 13 million readers seek answers to
their questions on ThoughtCo.
For more
than 20 years, Dotdash brands have been helping people find answers,
solve problems, and get inspired. We are one of the top-20 largest content
publishers on the Internet according to comScore, and reach more than 30% of
the U.S. population monthly. Our brands collectively have won more than 20
industry awards in the last year alone, and recently Dotdash was named
Publisher of the Year by Digiday, a leading industry publication.
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