Question

How do meridians of longitudes help to measure the east-west direction and locate places?

Answer 1

Instructions:

• Understand how to measure east-west positions.
• Explain the prime meridian.
• Explain how we can locate any places on the earth.

Solution:

• Meridians of longitudes measure the east-west directions and the distances between them are measured in degrees of longitude.
• The longitude of a place is followed by the letter E for the east and W for the west.
• Meridians in the eastern hemisphere are labelled as 10° E, 25° E, 135° E, etc. while in the western hemisphere they are labelled as 10° W, 25° W, 135° W etc.
• The prime meridian is the line of 0° longitude, the starting point for measuring distance both east and west around Earth.
• It is, however, interesting to note that 180° East and 180° West meridians are on the same line.
• So it is necessary to mention the Eastern and Western hemisphere.
• Latitude Value is written first followed by Longitude Value.
• A place is located where both the lines intersect.
• For example, A point is located at 40N latitude and 60E longitude then we denote them as 40N, 60E. These are called the coordinates of that particular point. Now that's how we give directions to a place.