What is latitude and longitude in simple terms?

What is latitude and longitude in simple terms?

Latitude and longitude are a system of lines used to describe the location of any place on Earth. Lines of latitude run in an east-west direction across Earth. Lines of longitude run in a north-south direction. Although these are only imaginary lines, they appear on maps and globes as if they actually existed.

What is latitude and longitude with example?

Latitude and longitude are a pair of numbers (coordinates) used to describe a position on the plane of a geographic coordinate system. For example, Washington DC has a latitude 38.8951 and longitude -77.0364 . In API calls you will often see the numbers placed together and separated by a comma: -77.0364,38.8951 .

How do you write longitude and latitude?

When writing latitude and longitude, write latitude first, followed by a comma, and then longitude. For example, the above lines of latitude and longitude would be written as “15°N, 30°E.”

How do you write coordinates?

Coordinates are written as (x, y) meaning the point on the x axis is written first, followed by the point on the y axis. Some children may be taught to remember this with the phrase ‘along the corridor, up the stairs’, meaning that they should follow the x axis first and then the y.

What is latitude example?

Latitude tells you where you are between the North Pole and the South Pole. The equator is zero degrees, the North Pole is 90 degrees North, and the South Pole is 90 degrees South, and in between is in between. An example would be the equator, which is at zero degrees of latitude.

What are examples of longitude?

For example, the longitude of Paris, France, is 2° 29′ E (2 degrees, 29 minutes east). The longitude for Brasilia, Brazil, is 47° 55′ W (47 degrees, 55 minutes west). A degree of longitude is about 111 kilometers (69 miles) at its widest. The widest areas of longitude are near the Equator, where the Earth bulges out.

What are the symbols for latitude and longitude?

Calculations often represent angles by small letters of the Greek alphabet, and that way latitude will be represented by λ (lambda, Greek L), and longitude by φ (phi, Greek F).

Do you write the longitude or latitude first?

Which Comes First, Latitude or Longitude? When you see a pair of coordinates and can’t remember whether latitude or longitude comes first, think about alphabetical order to remember. Latitude comes first in alphabetical order and it also is the first coordinate in a set. Longitude is the second coordinate in the set.