Draw a Divided Circle to Represent Earth

Geography is about spatial understanding, which requires an accurate grid system to make up one's mind absolute and relative location.Accented location is the exact 10– and y– coordinate on the Earth.Relative location is the location of something relative to other entities. For case, when you use your GPS in your smart telephone or auto, say Google Maps, y'all put in an accented location. But as you start driving, the device tells you to turn right or left relative to objects on the ground: "Turn left on exit 202" is relative to the other get out points. Or if you give directions to your house, you often use relative locations to help them understand how to get to your house.

Great and Minor Circles

Much of World'south grid organization is based on the location of the Northward Pole, Southward Pole, and Equator. The poles are an imaginary line running from the axis of Earth's rotation. Theplane of the equator is an imaginary horizontal line that cuts the world into two equal halves. This brings up the topic of great and small circles. Agreat circle is whatsoever circumvolve that divides the world into a circumference of two equal halves. It'southward likewise the largest circumvolve that can exist drawn on a sphere. The line connecting any points along a nifty circle is also the shortest distance between those two points. Examples of great circles include the Equator, all lines of longitude, the line that divides the earth into day and night called thecircle of illumination , and theplane of ecliptic, which divides the world into equal halves forth the equator.Pocket-sized circles are circles that cut the earth, but non into equal halves. Examples of small-scale circles include all lines of breadth except the equator, the Tropical of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, the Chill Circle, and Antarctic Circle.

Breadth and Longitude

Many think that latitude is a line connecting points on the earth and it'south non.Latitude is really an angular measurement north or s of the equator. So 30 degrees north ways a point that is thirty degrees north of the equator. Latitude is also expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds; 360 degrees in a circumvolve, hr ( ' ) in a caste, and 60 seconds ( " ) in a infinitesimal. When yous use Google Earth, the coordinate locations are in this degrees/minutes/seconds format. Latitude varies from 0 degrees (equator) to 90 degrees n and south (the poles).  A line connecting all points of the same latitude is chosen aparallel, because the lines run parallel to each other. The merely parallel that is besides a great circumvolve is the equator. All other parallels are small circles. The post-obit are the most important parallel lines:

• Equator, 0 degrees
• Tropic of Cancer, 23.five degrees North
• Tropic of Capricorn, 23.five degrees S
• Arctic Circle, 66.5 degrees N
• Antarctic Circle, 66.5 degrees S
• Due north Pole, xc degrees North (infinitely small circle)
• Due south Pole, 90 degrees S (infinitely small circle)

Breadth is besides sometimes described aszones of latitude. Some of these zones of breadth include:

• Low latitude—generally betwixt the equator and thirty degrees N
• Midlatitude—betwixt 30 degrees and 60 degrees North and S
• High latitude—latitudes greater than about sixty degrees Northward and S
• Equatorial—within a few degrees of the equator
• Tropical—within the tropics (between 23.5 degrees North and 23.5 degrees S
• Subtropical—slightly pole-ward of the tropics, by and large effectually 25-xxx degrees N and S
• Polar—within a few degrees of the North or South Pole

Longitude is the athwart measurement due east and west of the Prime Meridian (image on the right). Similar latitude, longitude is measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds. Lines connecting equal points of longitude are calledmeridians. But unlike parallels, meridians practice not run parallel to each other. Rather they are farthest apart from each other at the equator and merge toward each other toward the poles. The problem with longitude is that at that place isn't a natural baseline like the equator is for breadth. For over a hundred years, nations used their own "prime number meridian" which proved problematic for trade. But in 1883 an international conference in Washington D.C. was held to determine a global prime meridian. After weeks of debate, the Imperial Observatory at Greenwich, England was determined equally the Greenwich Meridian or too chosen the prime meridian for the world. So today, longitude starts at the Prime Acme and measures east and w of that line.

At 180 degrees of the Prime Superlative in the Pacific Bounding main is theInternational Engagement Line. The line determines where the new day begins in the earth. At present because of this, the International Date Line is not actually a straight line, rather it follows national borders so that a country isn't divided into two separate days (and nosotros recollect hour time zones are a pain). If you look at the map below, the International Date Line is to the right in a dark, black line. Note how it is fatigued to make sure nations are not divided past the International Appointment Line.

Time Zones

This is also a adept time to take a expect at time zones effectually the world. If you lot refer dorsum to the map in a higher place, you can run across the different time zones in the diverse colors. Since the globe rotates 360 degrees in a 24 hr period, the earth rotates fifteen degrees every hour creating 24 fourth dimension zones. In an platonic world, each time zone would follow lines of longitude every 15 degrees (seven.5 degrees in each direction from the middle of the time zone). But because of political boundaries, fourth dimension zones are not divided up so perfectly and vary profoundly in shape and width. Greenwich, England was called in the mid-nineteenth century as the starting indicate of time worldwide. The reason was because at the time, England was the superpower of the time both militarily and economically. And then the peak that ran through Greenwich became zero degrees or the prime superlative. Considering of the earth'south rotation in reference to the prime number meridian, locations east of the new acme meant time was ahead while locations west of the tiptop were behind in time in reference to Greenwich, England. Ultimately, when you combine parallel and meridian lines, you lot terminate upwards with ageographic filigree organization that allows y'all to decide your verbal location on the planet.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/geophysical/chapter/geographic-grid-system/

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