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NOAA National Ocean Service
oceanservice.noaa.gov › facts › longitude.html
What is longitude?
Lines of longitude, also called meridians, are imaginary lines that divide the Earth. They run north to south from pole to pole, but they measure the distance east or west. Longitude is measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds.
geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface
Longitude (/ˈlɒndʒɪtjuːd/, AU and UK also /ˈlɒŋɡɪ-/) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an … Wikipedia
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Longitude
Longitude - Wikipedia
1 month ago - Longitude (/ˈlɒndʒɪtjuːd/, ... in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter lambda (λ). Meridians are imaginary semicircular lines running from pole to pole that connect points with the same longitude....
People also ask

What does lines of longitude mean?
Lines of Longitude are an imaginary grid lines running North and South, meeting at the poles. This system measures the East and West distance of a point from the Prime Meridian.
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study.com
study.com › science courses › geology 101: physical geology
Longitude | Definition & Examples - Lesson | Study.com
Are lines of longitude parallel?
No, the lines of longitude are not parallel. They run North and South and converge at the poles and spread out near the equator.
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study.com
study.com › science courses › geology 101: physical geology
Longitude | Definition & Examples - Lesson | Study.com
What is longitude?
Longitude is a measurement of location east or west of the prime meridian at Greenwich, London, England, the specially designated imaginary north-south line that passes through both geographic poles and Greenwich. Longitude is measured 180° both east and west of the prime meridian.
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britannica.com
britannica.com › philosophy & religion › humanities
Latitude and longitude | Definition, Examples, Diagrams, & Facts ...
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BBC
bbc.co.uk › bitesize › articles › zd4rmfr
What is longitude and latitude? - BBC Bitesize
January 20, 2025 - If I want to see where a place is in the world, I just need to look at where the lines cross, and read the numbers. Ah, there he is! Latitude is 32 degrees south, and longitude is 115 degrees east.
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Humboldt State University
gsp.humboldt.edu › olm › Lessons › GIS › 01 SphericalCoordinates › Latitude_and_Longitude.html
GSP 270: Latitude and Longitude
The lines running North to South are called "Meridians" or "lines of longitude" (Figure 2), while the lines running East to West are called "Parallels" or "lines of latitude" (Figure 3).
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Study.com
study.com › science courses › geology 101: physical geology
Longitude | Definition & Examples - Lesson | Study.com
January 19, 2017 - Lines of longitude and latitude are imaginary grid lines covering the Earth and forming a system running north/south and east/west, respectively. These grid lines are called a geographic coordinate system.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/askscience › why were lines of longitude defined differently from lines of latitude? (ie not parallel)
r/askscience on Reddit: Why were lines of longitude defined differently from lines of latitude? (ie not parallel)
October 20, 2023 -

I understand that lines of longitude converge at the poles, but why were they made to do that when lines of latitude run parallel to each other?

Or maybe what I want to know is, why don’t we have another set of lines that run north and south but remain parallel to each other?

I think I can understand why you don’t need converging lines that run east to west, but if parallel lines are helpful running east and west, wouldn’t they be helpful running north and south too?

Edit: Apologies that this is so unclear, it was very hard to find the wording to convey my question. Maybe what I should have asked is, why is it helpful to measure latitudinally using nearly cylindrical parallel divisions, where we measure the earth longitudinally in converging divisions that make a shape like an orange carpel (again, I am running out of words here).

Second Edit: CrustalTrudger helped me understand that the lines of longitude and latitude were defined as they were primarily because of their relation to the sun and the poles and their usefulness in navigation. The lines of longitude are not just measuring the difference between places on the earth, but instead are something like tracking the places which are directly under the sun at the same time. This would have been more practical at the time than covering the globe in a grid of arbitrary parallel lines. The latitudinal lines are even distances from the equator which has significance in relation to both the sun and the poles.

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It's worth starting with the problem that lines of longitude - defined as great circles that pass through the rotational axis of the planet - solved. Specifically, in early navigation (primarily at sea), measuring latitude was relatively simple because either through observation of the sun position or star positions you could work out how far north or south you were of the equator. This is in part because that the equator is not an arbitrary line as it's defined as the great circle (the only line of latitude that is a great circle) 90 degrees from the rotational axis of the planet (and this is why it makes sense to define lines of latitude that represent fixed angular distances from the equator as what you were measuring was the angular distance from the equator and/or from the pole). In contrast, figuring out how far east or west you were while at sea was more challenging. The idea behind longitude was to define great circles where positions along a singe line of longitude reflect locations where the sun will be at its zenith at precisely the same time. Then, with precision time keeping, a reference point (the prime meridian), and the difference between your local zenith time and the zenith time at the prime meridian, you could work out how far west or east you were in angular distance. This would not work with lines of longitude that were parallel. If we imagine that now with more advanced ways of measuring positions there's nothing necessarily tying us to lines of longitude as originally defined, there are a few problems that pop up. One is again related to time. Specifically, from above, one property of a line of longitude is that it represents points along the surface of the Earth at the same time with respect to the position of the sun in the sky. A system with parallel lines of longitude would not maintain this property (except at whatever arbitrary position you defined the equator equivalent in this hypothetical longitude system). More importantly, if we imagine a system where both lines of longitude and latitude were internally parallel (and orthogonal to each other), we've introduced a non-uniqueness to coordinates. At present, latitude spans -90 to 90 degrees and longitude spans from -180 to 180 (or 0 to 360) so each point on the surface has a unique coordinate pair. However, if we had a system where longitude spans from -90 to 90, any coordinate would represent two possible locations. I.e. a coordinate of 0 latitude, 0 longitude could represent either of the two possible intersections (on opposite sides of the globe) of the latitude equator and longitude equator, and the same would be true for every intersection of lines of longitude and latitude. It probably goes without saying, non-uniqueness is a really bad property for any proposed coordinate system. The arbitrary nature of the position of the "equator" and "poles" of this hypothetical version of longitude is also a bit of a problem, or at least, it introduces a pretty annoying set of properties to a coordinate system designed in this way.
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We're on a rotating sphere. The coordinates are defined relative to this rotation. The E/W direction (in which the latitude lines run) is the direction we're rotating in, and the N/S direction points perpendicular to that. Or equivalently, N/S points towards the points where the axis of rotation passes through the surface of the earth. We have two distinguished points by the rotation at the North and South pole. We don't have an "East and West pole". Furthermore, the axis of rotation nearly lines up with the magnetic poles, so thinking of N/S as "the direction a compass points in" is also very useful. The rotation based coordinate system also makes navigation via the stars much easier, with "north" being "towards Polaris" basically (the star that doesn't appear to move as the earth rotates).
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MapQuest
developer.mapquest.com › home › archive › what is the difference between latitude and longitude?
What is the difference between latitude and longitude?
July 18, 2024 - Through examining the differences and similarities between latitude and longitude, this piece aims to equip readers with the knowledge to navigate the world more effectively, underscoring the significance of these coordinates in global navigation and beyond. Latitude measures the distance north or south of the equator, defined by lines running parallel to the equator.
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ArcGIS
arcgis.com › home › item.html
World Latitude and Longitude Grids - Overview
World Latitude and Longitude Grids provides latitude and longitude lines for use as an overlay for world-level maps.
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Maps of World
mapsofworld.com › world-maps › world-map-with-latitude-and-longitude.html
World Map with Latitude and Longitude - Geographic Coordinates
If we consider Greenwich Meridian as the Prime Meridian, the longitude can be defined maximum as 180° east from the Prime Meridian and 180° west from the Prime Meridian. The coordinates on the Lat Long Map refer to the angles, which are measured ...
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Encyclopedia Britannica
britannica.com › philosophy & religion › humanities
Latitude and longitude | Definition, Examples, Diagrams, & Facts | Britannica
3 weeks ago - ... Lines of latitude (also called ... (also called meridians) run between the geographic North Pole and the geographic South Pole and are used to measure distances from the prime meridian....
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BBC
bbc.co.uk › bitesize › articles › zxdpn9q
What are latitude and longitude? - BBC Bitesize
January 20, 2025 - If I want to see where a place is in the world, I just need to look at where the lines cross, and read the numbers. Ah, there he is! Latitude is 32 degrees south, and longitude is 115 degrees east.
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Australian National Maritime Museum
sea.museum › en › article › a-beginners-guide-to-longitude
A beginners guide to longitude | Australian National Maritime Museum
The equator represents 0° and each pole represents 90°. Each degree of latitude corresponds with 60 nautical miles, or 111.1 kilometres, on the Earth’s surface. Longitude – Lines of longitude, called meridians, run vertically from pole to pole.
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Shutterstock
shutterstock.com › search › longitude-line
Longitude Line royalty-free images
Find stock images in HD and millions of other royalty-free stock photos, 3D objects, illustrations and vectors in the Shutterstock collection. Thousands of new, high-quality pictures added every day.
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Quora
quora.com › What-are-the-main-lines-of-longitude
What are the main lines of longitude? - Quora
Answer (1 of 25): The 0 degree meridian through the Greenwich Observatory in England is the longitude line used as the starting point for most of the nations in the world to measure longitude. It is very important for people who want to agree on what the numeric value of longitude is anywhere in ...
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Quora
quora.com › What-are-the-major-lines-of-latitude-and-longitude
What are the major lines of latitude and longitude? - Quora
Answer (1 of 3): There are only two lines of longitude that I would consider “Major” - and they are both rather arbitrary! Longitude 0 - Arbitrarily assigned to go through the Greenwich Observatory in England. England was, at the time, either one of a few, or simply the, dominant power ...
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The New York Public Library
nypl.org › blog › 2021 › 06 › 18 › maps-wayfinding-and-discovery-longitude
Maps, Wayfinding, and the Discovery of Longitude | The New York Public Library
On a globe, the vertical lines of longitude converge at the poles. On Mercator’s map, the meridians are equally spaced and parallel to one another, meaning that the map is stretched east-west along meridians at higher latitudes.
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Answers
answers.com › geography › What_do_lines_of_longitude_tell_us_on_a_map
What do lines of longitude tell us on a map? - Answers
June 22, 2017 - Lines of longitude tells us where we are in relation to the Prime Meridian, either to the west or east.For an exact position on Earth, both lines of latitude and longitude (in degrees plus minutes and seconds) are used.
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Quora
quora.com › What-are-the-major-lines-of-longitude-and-latitude-What-purpose-do-they-serve
What are the major lines of longitude and latitude? What purpose do they serve? - Quora
Answer (1 of 15): On longitude I would say the Prime Meridian. All other lines of longitude are counted to the east or to the west of the Prime Meridian. The 180th meridian of longitude. That is where the east longitude meets the west longitude. It is also the line used for the date line, althou...
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Shutterstock
shutterstock.com › search › longitude-latitude-lines
9,930 Longitude Latitude Lines Images, Stock Photos, 3D objects, & Vectors | Shutterstock
Find Longitude Latitude Lines stock images in HD and millions of other royalty-free stock photos, illustrations and vectors in the Shutterstock collection. Thousands of new, high-quality pictures added every day.