Latitude & Longitude House Signs

Latitude and Longitude are the coordinates
that describe any position or location on the earth's
surface. If an explorer, pilot, or ship's captain
needs to specify an exact location, Latitude and
Longitude are the coordinates they use.

Demo One We're All About Latitude & Longitude

Coordinates Plaque
Empire State Building
350 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York

Longitude (lon'jitOOd)
Lines of Longitude measure location east or west of the prime
meridian and pass through Greenwich, England. Zero degrees
longitude (0°) is the prime meridian. Lines of Longitude run
vertically around the globe, 180° east and 180° west from the
prime meridian. For every 15° of longitude one travels eastward,
the local time moves ahead one hour- local time moves back
one hour for every 15° travelling west. Buy knowing the local
times at two points on Earth, we can calculate how far apart
those places are in longitude, east or west.

John Harrison
1693-1776
Discovered how to compute
longitude at sea.
Click Here to Learn More!

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Latitude

Degrees

Minutes

Seconds

Longitude

Click to view trailer

LONGITUDE
Produced by A&E

30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA
New York, NY 10112
Lat: 40.75 ( 40° 45' )
Lon: -73.9 ( -73° 58' )

Click here To learn about the
sextant.

Lat- Lon is measured by degrees ( ° ), minutes ( ' ),
and seconds ( " ). The Earth’s sphere totals 360
degrees and each degree is divided into 60
minutes, and in turn each minute is divided into 60
seconds.

Latitude (lat'i-tOOd)
Lines of Latitude, or parallels of latitude, measure location
north or south of the equator. Latitude lines are equidistant
from each other and each degree of latitude is about 69 miles
(110 km) apart. Zero degrees (0°) latitude is the equator, the
widest circumference of the globe. Latitude is measured from
0° to 90° north and 0° to 90° south. 90° north is the North Pole
and 90° south is the South Pole. Latitude is always listed
before Longitude.

Latitude

Longitude

This fifty-foot statue of Atlas by
Lee Lawrie was erected in
1937 at Rockefeller Center on
Fifth Avenue in New Your City.
The statue is a tribute to man’s
quest to solve one of the most
challenging scientific problem
of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries- how to
precisely navigate the globe.

Watch Video on the History of Longitude

EXPLORE THE COORDINATES SYSTEM
AND HOW IT CHANGE THE WORLD

"When I'm playful I use the meridians of
longitude and the parallels of latitude...
and drag the Atlantic Ocean for whales."
Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi