Latitude and Longitude....HELP!!!!?

Question

Okay, so I'm trying to understand Latitude and Longitude and how to use them to find absolute locations.

I already read a brief explanation of it on nationalatlas.gov, but theirs was too hard to understand for me.

Are there any thorough, easy-to-understand explanations of Latitude and Longitude on any good websites?!?!

Need help ASAP!

Answer 1

the latitude is 32 degrees and 57 minutes north and the longitude is 85 degrees and 57 minutes west. there are also seconds involved but your example did not show any. consider that the earth at the equator is a circle which contains 360 degrees. about one hour for every 15 degrees of arc and it is not so difficult to comprehend. and from the equator to the north or south pole is 90 degrees of arc. the equator is 0 degrees latitude and for every 15 minutes of arc is another hour. go back now and reread the explanation you referred to and see if it is any cleared.

Answer 2

The 57's in your example are minutes. Minutes and seconds are used to get even more specific than lat/long. If lat/long are measured in whole degrees the easiest way to think about it is like a fraction of a degree, like 32.6 or 32.65 degrees. That's not a mathematically correct explanation - just a way of understanding the basic concept.

Mathematically there are 60 minutes in every degree and 60 seconds in every minute so the math works similar to telling time with degrees being like an hour. Your example only gives minutes.

Answer 3

On degrees and minutes

Longittude is the east-west distance to any point from Greenwich meridian, being the Greenwich one Longitude 0º, and it is measured from 0º to 180º so East as West.

Latitude is the North or South distance to any point from ecuador, being this one Latitude 0º and both the Poles Latitude 90º

Answer 4

Latitude

When looking at a map, latitude lines run horizontally. Latitude lines are also known as parallels since they are parallel and are an equal distant from each other. Each degree of latitude is approximately 69 miles (111 km) apart; there is a variation due to the fact that the earth is not a perfect sphere but an oblate ellipsoid (slightly egg-shaped). To remember latitude, imagine them as the horizontal rungs of a ladder ("ladder-tude"). Degrees latitude are numbered from 0° to 90° north and south. Zero degrees is the equator, the imaginary line which divides our planet into the northern and southern hemispheres. 90° north is the North Pole and 90° south is the South Pole.

Longitude

The vertical longitude lines are also known as meridians. They converge at the poles and are widest at the equator (about 69 miles or 111 km apart). Zero degrees longitude is located at Greenwich, England (0°). The degrees continue 180° east and 180° west where they meet and form the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. Greenwich, the site of the British Royal Greenwich Observatory, was established as the site of the Prime Meridian by an international conference in 1884.  

Answer 5

Longitude is how far east or west you are. Latitude is how far north or south you are. They are measured in degrees.

For latitude, 0 degrees is the equator, the line around the middle of the earth. YOu can be up to 90 degrees north (at the north pole) or 90 degrees south (at the south pole). Everyone else is in between.

For longitude, 0 degrees is at Greenwich  in London, England. You can be up to 180 degrees west  of this or up to 180 degrees east of this.