Latitude and Longitude
Equator
The imaginary great circle around the earth's surface, equidistant from the poles and perpendicular to the earth's axis of rotation.
It divides the earth into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.
| Latitude Lines of latitude measure north-south position between the poles. The equator is defined as 0 degrees, the North Pole is 90 degrees north, and the South Pole is 90 degrees south. Lines of latitude are all parallel to each other, thus they are often referred to as parallels. |
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Longitude Lines of longitude, or meridians, run between the North and South Poles. They measure east-west position. The prime meridian is assigned the value of 0 degrees, and runs through Greenwich, England. Meridians to the west of the prime meridian are measured in degrees west and likewise those to the east of the prime meridian are measured to by their number of degrees east. |
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Latitude and Longitude
