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This search helps you find an exact address, street, building,
house, parcel or land location from Latitude and Longitude.
What are latitudes and longitudes?
Technically latitude and longitude are defined as spherical
coordinates on the surface of the earth. The address of any
place on earth can be specified by a latitude and longitude.
What is Latitude?
Lines of Latitude are the horizontal lines shown running east to
west on maps. Technically, latitude is an angular measurement in
degrees (marked with °) ranging from 0° at the equator (low
latitude) to 90° at the poles (90° N for the North Pole or 90° S
for the South Pole; high latitude). The complementary angle of a
latitude is called the co-latitude.
What is longitude?
Longitudes are imaginary lines that are drawn from the north
pole to the south poles. Longitudes are also referred to as
meridians. Longitude is measured starting from an imaginary
north-south line called the Prime Meridian. The prime meridian
is an arbitrary line that runs through Greenwich, London in the
UK at which longitude is defined to be 0'. Longitudes specify
how far east or west of the Prime Meridian some location on
earth is. Longitude is measured using degrees, the same way an
angle is. The Prime Meridian is 0° (zero degrees), and the
furthest away from the prime meridian is +180° eastward and
−180° westward. The opposite of the Prime Meridian, 180th
meridian (at 180° longitude), is called the International Date
Line. The line running through Greenwich London and comprising
of the International date line forms a great circle that divides
the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The
parallels of latitude are defined by the rotational axis of the
Earth (the poles being 90° and the Equator 0°), while the Prime
Meridian is arbitrary. By international convention, the modern
Prime Meridian is one passing through Greenwich, London, United
Kingdom, known as the International Meridian or Greenwich
Meridian
Following is the precision of the address, street, building,
house, parcel or land location. The more places you have after
the decimal the more precise your location.
Latitudes and longitudes are coordinates used to identify a
specific location on a map. The latitude and longitude are
usually specified in degrees. For greater precision degrees are
divided into minutes and minutes are divided into seconds. There
are 60 seconds in 1 minute and 60 minutes in 1 degree. An
example of a latitude specified in this way is 14°21'32″ N (for
greater precision, a decimal fraction can be added to the
seconds). An alternative representation uses only degrees and
minutes, where the seconds are expressed as a decimal fraction
of minutes: the above example would be expressed as 14°21.317'
N. Degrees can also be expressed singularly, with both the
minutes and seconds incorporated as a decimal number and rounded
as desired. This is called decimal degree notation. A typical
example to illustrate decimal degree notation is: 14.239° N.
The north or south suffix can also be noted by a negative sign
for south with −90° for the South Pole.
A typical sample to illustrate precision in decimal degree
notation would be as follows:
1 degree of latitude = 363,778.9 feet or 110,874.40 meters
0.100000 degree of latitude = 36377.8 feet or 11,087.44 meters
0.010000 degree of latitude = 3637.7 feet or 1,108.74 meters
0.001000 degree of latitude = 363.7 feet or 110.87 meters
0.000100 degree of latitude = 36.3 feet or 11.09 meters
0.000010 degree of latitude = 3.6 feet or 1.11 meters
0.000001 degree of latitude = 0.3 feet or 0.11 meters or 4.32 inches or 11
centimeters
Is the length of a degree of latitude constant anywhere on
earth?
The length of a degree of latitude is not constant. This is
due to the fact that the earth is not a perfect sphere. The
earth flattens slightly at the poles. Therefore the length of a
degree of latitude will increase as you go farther from the
equator and towards either of the poles.
For example:
Each degree of longitude equals 68.703 miles or 110.566 km
(Equatorial)
Each degree of longitude equals 69.407 miles or 111.699 km
(Poles)
Is the length of a degree of longitude constant anywhere on
earth?
Longitudes are lines that converge as you travel from the
Equator to the poles. Therefore the length of one degree of
longitude decreases as one gets closer to the poles. At the
equator a degree of longitude is 69.172 miles 111.321 kilometers
and at the poles a longitude has a length of zero. |
