Latitude - Longitude
Mr. Cesaire
Martin Van Buren High School
• Aim: How can we find locations on a map?
• Do Now: Write down in your notes; what is
longitude and latitude? When and where is it
useful?
• HW- Read pages 27 to 29. Answer questions 1
to 10 on page 30 in your UPCO book
• www.tinyurl.com/8msdk,
www.myspace.com/mrcesaire
• If you were pilot of a plane or captain of a
ship, before going from point A to point B,
what do you need to do first?
• You need flight plan or plot a course.
What are we plotting? We are plotting
specific points on a grid.
• An imaginary set of parallel lines or a grid
is used to help find a location on Earth.
Coordinate System
• These set of parallel lines are called a
coordinate system.
• This coordinate system used to find points
on Earth is similar to the coordinate
system used in math.
Coordinate System
Just like in math, we
use two points or
coordinates to find a
location on a map.
Red lines
are latitude
and blue
lines are
longitude.
• The two points used is Latitude and
Longitude
• Latitude- lines that run east to west above
or below the equator.
Latitude lines are parallel to each other
running East to West.
W
E
W
E
W
E
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/geo
logy/leveson/core/linksa/latitude.html
Latitude
Notice the 30
degrees angle
formed at the
center of Earth.
As mentioned
before, latitude
is the distance
in degrees
north or south
of the equator.
• The latitude of Martin Van Buren High
School is about 40.72 deg Latitude North
• The second coordinate point is
Longitude.
• Longitude- lines that run north to south,
east or west of the Prime Meridian (0o).
Longitude Lines are parallel
to each other running north
to south.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ge
ology/leveson/core/linksa/longitude.ht
ml
• The longitude of Martin Van Buren High
School is about 73.74 deg Longitude
West.
Latitude Longitude
• Finally! When combining latitude and
longitude, we have our grid or coordinate
system.
• Just like in math, we plot our points based
on two coordinates
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/geology/leves
on/core/graphics/mapgraphics/longlat2.gif
• So for Martin Van Buren, our coordinates
are 40.72 deg Latitude N, 73.74 deg
Longitude W
• Write a quick summary of what we
discussed today. What was something
new you learned today? What is
something that you did not understand?
• Do you feel confident about the class so
far?