latitude and longitude
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- Key People:
- Hipparchus Sir Harold Jeffreys
- Related Topics:
- Equator parallel pluviometric equator geocentric latitude geographic latitude
What is latitude?
What is the length of a degree of latitude?
What is longitude?
What is the distance per degree of longitude?
latitude and longitude, coordinate system by means of which the position or location of any place on Earth’s surface can be determined and described. Latitude is a measurement on a globe or map of location north or south of the Equator. Technically, there are different kinds of latitude—geocentric, astronomical, and geographic (or geodetic)—but there are only minor differences between them. In most common references, geocentric latitude is implied. Given in degrees, minutes, and seconds, geocentric latitude is the arc subtended by an angle at Earth’s centre and measured in a north-south plane poleward from the Equator. Thus, a point at ...(100 of 525 words)