Latitude and Longitude Skills

Latitude and Longitude Skills

This week in Social Studies class, we're looking at using lines of latitude and longitude to find locations on earth. Using a map to find locations, there are a few points to keep in mind:

LATITUDE lines are HORIZONTAL and measure how far NORTH or SOUTH a place is.

Latitude lines are also called parallels.

LONGITUDE lines are VERTICAL and measure how far EAST or WEST a place is.

Longitude lines are also called meridians.

When you write the coordinates of a specific place the latitude number goes first, followed by the longitude number.

Latitude and longitude points are measured in degrees. This is because our earth is round and there are 360 degrees in a circle!

If you were trying to locate the city of Boston, you would say that it lies at (42°N, 71°W). This means that Boston is 42 degrees north of the equator, and 71 degrees west of the Prime Meridian.

Tim and Moby explain latitude and longitude in a video on BrainPop--Check it out by clicking here. If you don't remember the login and password, ask me during class.




Here's a CHEEZ-TASTIC video from the 1970s!