What is latitude and longitude? Detailed answer

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What is latitude and longitude? Detailed answer

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What is the latitude and longitude?

Imagine that you are on board a ship lost in the ocean, or wandering through the desert, where there are no noticeable objects or landmarks. How would you be able to explain your exact location so that someone could find you?

It was for this purpose that the concepts of latitude and longitude were introduced. With their help, you can be found anywhere on the surface of the Earth, wherever you are. Latitude is used to locate an object in relation to the North and South Poles. At an equal distance between the poles lies an imaginary line called the equator. This is zero latitude.

Moving from the equator to the north, we find ourselves in the region of northern latitudes, to the south - southern. Latitudes are the same imaginary lines stretching around the Earth at regular intervals. They are parallel to each other and the equator and are therefore called parallels. The distance between these lines is not measured in kilometers, but in degrees.

If the circle is divided into 360 equal parts by lines passing through the center of the circle, then the angle between adjacent lines will be equal to one degree. For greater accuracy in determining the location, each degree is divided into 60 minutes, and each minute is divided into 60 seconds. The North Pole is at 90 degrees north and the South Pole is at 90 degrees south.

However, in order to accurately determine any place on the globe, it is not enough to know its position relative to the north and south, but also to the west and east. This is what longitude lines are for. Since there is no west or east pole, there is therefore no natural reference point.

A long time ago it was decided that the line of zero longitude passes through the Greenwich Laboratory, located in England on the eastern outskirts of London. The lines of longitude are called meridians. All of them run perpendicular to the equator and intersect each other at two points at the North and South Poles. To the east of the zero meridian is the region of eastern longitudes, to the west - western ones.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What is tundra?

The term "tundra" comes from a Finnish word that means "bad land" or "hostile territory". It is commonly used in reference to the treeless zone of the Arctic.

The tundra, of course, is not a very pleasant place to live. There are no trees, very low temperatures in winter, and in summer the average temperature is only 10 °C. There is very little rainfall, and strong winds blow all year round. Despite these conditions, various life forms exist in the tundra, and you might be interested to know which life forms can survive in such conditions.

The vegetation of the tundra is lichens that form a surface layer on rocks, moss that fills crevices in rocks and grows into coarse gravel, as well as some grasses and grass-like plants and some low shrubs. Most of the tundra plants are perennial, and their aquatic varieties are negligible. The number of animals is also small.

Lemmings, musk oxen and polar bears live in the tundra. A large number of birds hatch chicks in the tundra. Long daylight hours in summer allow birds to forage for many hours and feed large flocks of chicks. There are many ducks, geese and plovers in the tundra.

The soil layer in the tundra is very thin. It lies on permafrost. In summer, the top layer of permafrost thaws, and plant roots and bacteria begin to live. The tundra zone does not begin at one specific latitude. It differs across continents. But when you find yourself in the tundra, you will realize that you are in one of the harshest regions of the Earth.

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