the city of chicago has a latitude (42Â°n) within which part of the global circulation?

Latitude increases as you go North, making the Northern Hemisphere positive latitude and the Southern Hemisphere negative latitude. The mid-point of these quadrants is 0 degrees latitude (the equator) and 0 degrees longitude (the North-South line that runs through Greenwich Observatory). In other words, we’ve taken a circular Earth and separated it into quadrants. Like an algebraic plot, each number can be positive or negative. Thirty years later, 25 nations met to officially declare it the prime meridian.Įvery point on Earth can be described by a number of degrees latitude and a number of degrees longitude. In 1851, Sir George Airy chose the observatory in Greenwich, England, an area of London, to be zero longitude. While latitude is determined by the equator, humans had to make up a midpoint for longitude. The line formed by your arms is the latitudinal line for your location. Now move your arms to point East and West. The line your pointing makes would be the longitudinal line for your location.

Do you know which way North is? Use one arm to point precisely North and position your other arm in the exact opposite direction. Stand up and imagine your feet represent an exact point on Earth. Longitude is the number of degrees east or west of the prime meridian, an even more imaginary line because it was made up. Latitude is the number of degrees north or south of the equator, the imaginary line that runs horizontally through the Earth. What are Latitude and Longitude?īefore you can interpret the map above, you need to know about the pair of numbers used to plot map coordinates: latitude and longitude. Read on to find out more about latitude/longitude coordinates, and see some surprising commonalities when we look at cities with the same latitudes or longitudes. View Cities by Latitude & Longitude in a full screen map In addition to the cities’ exact locations, we found their nearest latitude and longitude (within 5 degrees), and you can filter the map by these ranges. These coordinates, called latitude and longitude, are used to create maps like the one below.

While no cities can share both sets of coordinates (since it’s the exact location of the city), many share one of the numbers that make up their coordinate pair.

Cities Around the World by Latitude and LongitudeĮvery city in the world has one thing in common: they each have a pair of coordinates, numbers that describe their location.

The city of chicago has a latitude (42Â°n) within which part of the global circulation?