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Parallels and Meridians

The document discusses latitudes and longitudes, including how they are used to locate places on a globe. It explains that lines of latitude are parallels that run east to west and are numbered from 0 to 90 degrees north and south. Lines of longitude are meridians that run north to south and are numbered from 0 to 180 degrees east and west of the prime meridian which passes through Greenwich, England.

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RIA SEKHRI
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306 views25 pages

Parallels and Meridians

The document discusses latitudes and longitudes, including how they are used to locate places on a globe. It explains that lines of latitude are parallels that run east to west and are numbered from 0 to 90 degrees north and south. Lines of longitude are meridians that run north to south and are numbered from 0 to 180 degrees east and west of the prime meridian which passes through Greenwich, England.

Uploaded by

RIA SEKHRI
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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M

LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES


PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE
• The Earth rotates on its axis.
• It is an imaginary line drawn
through the centre of the Earth.
• The end points on the axis are
called poles.
• The poles are used as two fixed
points.
• The point on the top is the North
Pole and the one at the bottom is
the South Pole.
PARALLELS
• A set of circles is drawn on the
surface of the globe.
• These circles run from east to west.
• They are called
parallels or lines of
latitude.
THE
EQUATOR
• The Earth is divided
into two parts by
drawing an imaginary
line midway between
the North Pole and the
South Pole.
• This line is called the
Equator.
THE LONGEST PARALLEL
• The Equator itself is the
longest parallel.
• The part of the Earth
which lies to the north
of the Equator is called
the Northern Hemisphere.
• The other half ,known as
the Southern Hemisphere,
lies to the
south of the Equator.
IMPORTANT FEATURES OF
LATITUDES
HOW ARE PARALLELS
NUMBERED?
• We mark the Equator as 0 ° Latitude.
• Mark the other parallels from 0 ° to 90 °.
• The North Pole is written as 90 ° N.
• The South Pole is
written as 90 ° S.
• The Parallels are drawn at
intervals of one degree.
PARALLELS ON THE GLOBE
• There are 90 parallels in the Northern
Hemisphere and 90 parallels in the
Southern Hemisphere.
• Therefore,there are
181 parallels in all,
including the
Equator.
IMPORTANT PARALLELS
• The five major parallels of latitudes from north to south
are
• Arctic Circle,
• Tropic of Cancer,
• Equator,
• Tropic of Capricorn,
• and the Antarctic
Circle.

The Arctic and the


Antarctic circles are also
called POLAR CIRCLES.
MERIDIANS
• Imaginary lines running from North
to South are called Meridians or
Lines of Longitude.
• These lines are
drawn from pole
to pole.
IMPORTANT FEATURES OF
LONGITUDES
HOW ARE MERIDIANS
NUMBERED?
• Same as parallels ,
we need a starting
point to number
the meridians.
• In 1884,it was
decided to fix
Greenwich,a place
near London,as
the starting point
for numbering
meridians.
WHY GREENWICH WAS CHOSEN
AS PRIME MERIDIAN

• There were two main reasons for the choice.


The first was the fact that the USA had already
chosen Greenwich as the basis for its own
national time zone system.
• The second was that in the late 19th century,
72% of the world's commerce depended on
sea-charts which used Greenwich as
the Prime Meridian.
PRIME MERIDIAN
• The Prime Meridian Line, which represents
zero degrees longitude, is an imaginary line
and could have been chosen anywhere.
• Greenwich was chosen as the Prime
Meridian because it was
voted as the prime candidate by an elite
group of astronomers during the International
Meridian Conference, 1884.
TOTAL MERIDIANS
• Like parallels,meridians are also drawn at
intervals of one degree.
• When we move away from the Prime Meridian
towards the East or the West,we reach halfway
round the Earth at 180 °.
• Hence,there are 180 meridians towards the east
of the Prime Meridian and 180 meridians towards
the west of the Prime Meridian.
• The meridian of 180 ° E and 180 ° W is the same
line.
• So,in total there are 360 meridians.
LOCATION OF CONTINENTS
LOCATING PLACES ON THE GLOBE
• The parallels and meridians form a network of lines on
the globe. This is called a GRID.
• We use it to locate places
on the globe.
• To locate a place,we must
know values of its parallel
and its meridian.
• The point at which the
parallel and the meridian
cross each other is the
location of that place.
QUICK RECAP
• The two end points on the Earth’s axis are called poles.
• Lines of Latitude ,also called parallels, are drawn from East
to West.
• The Equator is the longest parallel. It divides the Earth into
two equal halves.
• Lines of Longitude are also called meridians. They are
drawn from North to South.
• The Prime Meridian is taken as the starting line for all other
meridians.
• The network of parallels and meridians on the globe is
called a grid.
• To locate a place on a globe ,we must know its Latitude and
Longitude.
SHORT TERMS INTRODUCED
• Axis – an imaginary line passing through two extreme
points on a sphere around which it spins.
• Pole – either of the end points at the top and the
bottom of the Earth’s axis.
• Grid – The network of lines on the globe is known as
grid.
• Hemisphere – The half of a sphere is known as
hemisphere.
• Equator – The longest parallel on the globe is known as
equator which divides the Earth into two equal halves.

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