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 Latitude
(shown as a horizontal line) is the angular distance,
in degrees, minutes, and seconds of a point north or south
of the Equator. Lines of latitude are often referred to as
parallels.
Longitude
(shown as a vertical line) is the angular distance,
in degrees, minutes, and seconds, of a point east or west of
the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian. Lines of longitude
are often referred to as meridians.
Distance between Lines
If you divide the circumference of the earth (approximately
40 000 kilometres) by 360 degrees,
the distance on the earth's surface for each one degree of
latitude or longitude is just over 111 km. Note: As
you move north or south of the equator, the distance between
the lines of longitude gets shorter until they actually meet
at the poles, 45 degrees N or S of the equator. One
degree of longitude is about 79 kilometres.
Minutes and Seconds
For precision purposes, degrees of longitude and latitude
have been divided into minutes (') and seconds ("). There
are 60 minutes in each degree. Each minute is divided into
60 seconds. Seconds can be further divided into tenths,
hundredths, or even thousandths.
For example,
our school, Woodvale Primary, is located in Western
Australia at 31 degrees, 47 minutes, and 39.7 seconds south
of the equator, and 115 degrees, 47 minutes and 36.82
seconds east of the Prime Meridian.
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Your task is to
'plan' a 2009 Cyber-Holiday. You are required to
visit four countries in each hemisphere (16 in
total) and identify the reason(s) for your visit. The
holiday must be taken over the duration of 2009. This will
allow you to visit any place at any time for any reason.
Complete the tables below and insert bookmarked
hyperlinks to allow easy navigation from the top of the
page. The exact latitude and longitude of each capital
city can be located on GOOGLE EARTH.