28 January marks our first ACE programme lesson on Geography. This day, our teacher Miss J. gave us an explanation what longitudes and latitudes are. They are imaginary lines that circle the Earth. "Why is it needed?" You might ask. They were created for a reason you know. It is to let people locate the places on the Earth more efficiently. Latitudes are horizontal while longtitudes are vertical. The Earth is divided five main latitudes: the Arctic circle, the Tropic of Cancer, the Equator, the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antartic circle. The Equator is 0' degree as it circles the middle of the Earth. The Arctic circle is 23.5 degrees North, the Tropic of Cancer is 66.5 degree North, the Tropic of Capricorn is 66.5 degrees South and the Antartic circle is 23.5 degrees South.
There is a main longitude that divides the Earth into an Eastern Hemisphere and a Western Hemisphere. It is called the Prime Merdian or the Greenwich Merdian. It is defined to be at 0' degree. The Earth is tilted at 23.5 degrees. It therefore has an axis. To understand more about this information, you can go to these websites:
---http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/imageg/htm
---http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitude
Hi Chrystal and Joanne, good that you pointed out the WHY behind the longitudes and latitudes. You're actually teasing into the answer for the title of my blog the WHY of the WHERE. -Miss J
ReplyDeleteDuring our previous discussion, we only talked about the greenwich(prime) meridian. Are there any more longitudes? If there are, What are they called and at which degree are they at?
ReplyDeleteRegarding about your question, there are other longitudes, but the main one will be the prime meridian. No really specific name for the others as far as I know.
ReplyDeleteChrystal Ng 1-2