To locate any point on a round Earth we need imaginary reference lines. Latitude tells us how far north or south a place is from the equator; longitude tells how far east or west it is from the Prime Meridian. Together they form a grid that fixes any position on the globe.
In this article
The Grid on the Globe
Latitude and the Parallels
- The Earth is not a perfect sphere; it is slightly flattened at the poles and bulges in the middle.
- The equator is an imaginary line at 0° latitude midway between the poles, dividing Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
- Parallels of latitude are imaginary circles running from the equator to the poles, measured in degrees up to 90°N and 90°S.
- Important parallels are the Tropic of Cancer (23½°N), Tropic of Capricorn (23½°S), Arctic Circle (66½°N) and Antarctic Circle (66½°S).
- These latitudes divide the Earth into heat zones: the hot Torrid Zone between the tropics, the moderate Temperate Zones, and the cold Frigid Zones inside the polar circles.
Longitude and the Meridians
- Meridians of longitude are imaginary half-circles running from the North Pole to the South Pole, all of equal length.
- The Prime Meridian passes through Greenwich (the British Royal Observatory) and is 0°; we count 180° east and 180° west from it.
- The 180°E and 180°W meridians are the same line.
- Where a parallel of latitude and a meridian of longitude cross, we can fix the exact location of any place.
Beyond the answer
Browse all world-geography topics →
📚 Keep reading
IndGeo0045 — India's Geographic Coordinates and Standard TimeUPSC CSM 2016 — General Studies Paper I (Full Question Paper)UPSC CSM 2016 — General Studies Paper II (Full Question Paper)UPSC CSM 2016 — General Studies Paper III (Full Question Paper)WorldGeo0044 — Why Countries Have Different Numbers of Time Zones❓ Practice this topic
D4389 — A large, heavily mechanised American farm and a small Indian smallholding growing the same kind of crop are best understood as what?D4388 — Jute was historically nicknamed which of these?D4387 — Which country remains the world's largest coffee producer by a wide margin?D4386 — Cotton cultivation needs roughly how many frost-free days, along with bright sunshine, to grow well?🎲 Take a World Geography Quiz
Leave a Reply