Understanding Latitude and Longitude: The Spherical Grid System That Pinpoints Any Location on Earth

Latitude and longitude are essential components of geography and maps. Latitude and longitude were created to determine the location of a ship out of sight of land. Together, they form a spherical grid around the Earth. They specify a location using measurements of degrees on a globe called a geographic coordinate system.

Latitude and longitude are helpful for specifying locations on Earth. Any place on Earth can be pinpointed using its latitude (North/South value) and longitude (West/East value) coordinates. A point’s coordinate is measured in degrees because it is the angle between the agreed reference (Equator for latitude/Greenwich for longitude) and the point, viewed from the center of Earth. Latitude is the North/South value of a point on Earth. Longitude is the West/East value of a point on Earth. Longitudes are lines going from the South Pole to the North Pole. Greenwich is on longitude 0° and any point on the line going from the North to the South pole via Greenwich is on longitude 0°.

Latitudes and longitudes are perpendicular to each other on the Mercator projection (a projection is a way of drawing a sphere on a flat map). Latitude and longitude are essential to make it possible to obtain accurate measurements of distances, angles…