Longitude and Latitude

Tuesday September 25th, 2018

Today we picked up on where we left off about maps and even reviewed longitude and latitude. Below are some of the topics that we covered in class today

• Projection is the scientific method of transferring locations on Earth's surface to a flat map which is called projection
• Earth's spherical shape causes distortion when drawing it on a flat piece of paper

There are four types of distortion which is

• Shape of an area can be distorted
• Distance between points may become increased or decreased
• Relative size of different areas can be altered
• Direction between points can be distorted

We also covered things such as the Geographic Grid which is explained below

• Geographic grid is the system of imaginary arcs drawn in a grid pattern on Earth's surface
• Meridians are arcs drawn between the North and the South plus and each is numbered according to a system called Longitude
• The values range from zero (prime Meridian) to 180 east or west Longitude
• The parallels are arcs drawn parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians
• Each is numbered according to the system as latitude which values from the equator to 90 degrees north or south
• The earth is a sphere and is divided into 360 degrees of longitude 
• You divide 360/24 time zones (one for each hour of the day) and get the answer of 15
• GMT means Greenwich Mean Time

All in all we reviewed more about maps today and went over latitude/ Longitude