Contents Background Latitude Longitude Coordinates Where am I? What can I do with this???

Background Imagine trying to describe where a single dot is on a ping pong ball. It would be very difficult – the same is true in describing a location on the Earth’s surface. Geographers solved this problem by creating Latitude & Longitude.

Latitude Lines of Latitude are imaginary lines that run East and West along the Earth’s surface. Latitude tells absolute location north or south on the Earth’s surface. We divide the Earth in half at the Equator and have 90 degrees of latitude north and 90 degrees south.

Latitude (continued)

Longitude Lines of Longitude are imaginary lines that run north and south along the earth’s surface, through the north pole and south pole. Longitude tells you the absolute location east or west of the Prime Meridian.

What are the numbers about? Latitude and Longitude divide the Earth up into 360 equal slices. Each slice is one degree (°). 360° equals a full circle. There are 90° of North Latitude and 90° of South Latitude. There are 180° of East Longitude and 180° of West Longitude.

Coordinates Coordinates are the set of numbers (the degrees north and the degrees south) that tell us the absolute location of something on the Earth’s surface. It is customary to say the Latitude (North or South) first, then the Longitude (East or West). Each degree can further be broken up into 60 minutes (‘), and each minute can be broke up into 60 seconds (“). For this class, minutes and seconds is not needed.

Where are we? Georgia: 30-35° N 80-85° W Atlanta: 33° 39' N 84° 26' W Mr. Adams’ house: 33° 59’ N 84° 2’ W Shiloh Middle School: 33° 49‘ N 84° 4’W What is the relative location of SMS compared to ATL?

What can I do with this??? The US Military uses Latitude & Longitude to describe absolute locations Want to find the absolute location of any address in the US? Go to Want to find treasure using Latitude & Longitude? Go to