Latitude and Longitude

[TracyR]

Okay . Would somone please explain how to find latitude and longitude in dummy mom terms . This is a topic I have never understood and with me being older now and thinking I could relearn this . I just still don't seem how to find latitude and longitude. Meaning finding the 'address' for the country , city . Or just finding it . Our book isn't very clear on this concept and really isn't doing a good job teaching this for us . I thought I understood it but I've tried it and seem to come up with the wrong place every time . I'm just not understanding it .:tongue_smilie:
Anyone ? Help . :001_huh:

[Jenny in Atl]

Think of latitude like a ladder, going up or down, north or south from then equator. Think of longitude as... well, the Earth cut up like a pie but going around the globe. Does that help?

[TracyR]

I understand that part. Its finding the addresses .
For example : 20 degrees North Latitude 15 degrees West Longitude. I can't figue this out .
We have the Hammond Discovering Maps book and it just had one quick page that decribed what it is . But it didn't get into how to find the location . Our Calvert test expects them to know this . Everytime I think I've got it I come up with the wrong place with her practice workbook . So I don't have a clue .

[Unicorn]

Think of it like points on an X and Y axis on graph paper. Where do the N/S(Y axis) and E/W (X axis)intersect? Does that help? nt

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I understand that part. Its finding the addresses .
For example : 20 degrees North Latitude 15 degrees West Longitude. I can't figue this out .
We have the Hammond Discovering Maps book and it just had one quick page that decribed what it is . But it didn't get into how to find the location . Our Calvert test expects them to know this . Everytime I think I've got it I come up with the wrong place with her practice workbook . So I don't have a clue .

Pretend that you're in a shopping mall with the food court in the middle. It is at 0 deg latitude, 0 deg longitude. The mall is shaped like a grid with hallways that cross each other. Each hall is either a north south or an east west. If you want to get to Sears, you would go six halls west and two halls north. The "address" of Sears would be 2 N 6 W. If you wanted to get to Coldstone creamery, you would need to go two halls east and six halls south. Its "address" would be 6 S 2 E. Then you decided that you needed to get a birthday card at Hallmark. Its address was 2 S 6 E. So you would need to go four halls north toward the food court and then four halls east away from the food court.

Latitude and longitude are similar. 0 0 is where the equator meets the prime meridian (0 longitude). Every other lat long address is given in relation to this point, either north or south and east or west.
The only other trick for the globe is that there is an opposite to the prime meridian, which is where the date line generally runs.