Equater, Prime Meridian, Latitude & Longitude

EQUATER

The equator is a large circle around the earth that is everywhere equidistant from the geographical poles and is located in a plane perpendicular to the earth's axis. This geographic or terrestrial equator divides the earth into the northern and southern hemispheres and forms the imaginary reference line on the earth's surface from which latitude is calculated. In other words, it is the line with latitude 0.In astronomy, the celestial equator is the great circle in which the plane of the earth's equator crosses the celestial sphere; consequently, it is equidistant from the celestial poles. When the sun is in your plane, day and night have the same duration everywhere, a occurrence twice a year known as the equinox.

PRIME MERIDIN

Prime Meridian in most balloons, around the sphere, you will notice that there are lines of drawn light.These lines form the geographic grid, a grid system created for the Earth, so that you can more easily describe a location on the planet.The grid is made up of latitude or parallel lines and longitude or meridian lines.Latitude lines run horizontally around the globe and define how far north or south is from the equator; The equator is an imaginary line equidistant from the north andsouth poles that divides the earth into the northern and southern hemispheres.The other lines, which run vertically on the globe, are called longitude lines.Longitude lines define how far east or west is the location of the first meridian, the focus of this lesson.The first meridian is an imaginary line that, similar to the equator, divides the earth into the eastern and western hemispheres.All latitude and longitude lines are measured in degrees.As the baseline for parallels, the equator has 0 degrees latitude.Going north or south, the latitude lines increase in degrees to 90 degrees north at the North Pole and 90 degrees south at the South Pole.Longitude lines run vertically around the planet from 0 to 180 degrees.Instead, they intersect at the poles and are farther apart at the equator.The first meridian, when passing through Greenwich, England, is considered 0 degrees long, because both the equator and the first meridian are imaginary lines, both established by humanity atThe equator was easy to decide because it is exactly between the north and south poles.As you rotate the globe, however, you will notice that there is no obvious center for an endless circle.So how, when, and why was the First Meridian established?

LATITUDE

The horizontal mapping lines on Earth are latitude lines.They are bering known as "parallel" latitude because they always run parallel to the equator.A simple way to visualize this might be to think of having imaginary horizontal "hula hoops" around the earth, with the largest ring around the equator, and then theprogressively smaller ones stacked above and below it to reach the north and north poles.south (Can you think of other ways to view the parallels of Latitude?) Latitude lines are a numerical way of measuring how far north or south of the equator is.The equator is the starting point for measuring latitude and is therefore marked as 0 degrees latitude.The number of degrees of latitude will increase the more the location of the equator, up to 90 degrees of latitude at the poles.Latitude locations are given in __ degrees north or __ degrees south.

LONGITUDE

Vertical mapping lines on Earth are longitude lines, known as "meridians".A simple way to visualize this might be to think of cutting hula hoops in half, placed vertically with one end at the North Pole and the other atLong lines are a numerical way to show / measure how far a place is to the east or west of a universal vertical line called the prime meridian.This Meridian Prime line runs vertically, north and south, just above the British Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, from the North Pole to the South Pole.To measure the east or west longitude of the first meridian, there are 180 lines of vertical length east of the first meridian and 180 lines of vertical length.west of the first meridian, longitude locations are given in __ degrees east or __ degrees west.The 180 degree line is a single vertical line called the International Date Line and is directly opposite the main meridian.