What is the meaning of longitude and latitude?

Longitude usually refers to the longitude of geographic coordinates. In order to distinguish each region on the earth, people marked the meridians with degrees, which is longitude. In fact, longitude is the angle between the planes where two meridians are located. Latitude refers to the line angle between a point and the center of the earth and the equatorial plane of the earth, and its value is between 0 and 90 degrees. What we are going to share with you below is the meaning of longitude and latitude and how to express the letters of longitude and latitude.

Contents of this article

1. What is the meaning of longitude and latitude?

2. Letters of longitude and latitude

3. What are right ascension and declination?

What is the meaning of longitude and latitude

1. Latitude and longitude are the combined names of longitude and latitude, forming a coordinate system.

2. Also known as the geographic coordinate system, it is a spherical coordinate system that uses a three-dimensional sphere to define the space on the earth and can mark any location on the earth.

3. Like longitude, latitude is an auxiliary line assumed by humans for the convenience of measurement. It is defined as the trajectory formed by a point on the earth's surface as the earth rotates.

4. Any latitude line is circular and parallel to each other.

5. The length of the latitude line is the circumference of the equator multiplied by the cosine of the latitude of the latitude line, so the equator is the longest. The farther the latitude line is from the equator, the shorter the circumference, and it shrinks to 0 at the poles.

6. Longitude is also called meridian. Like latitude, it is an auxiliary line assumed by humans for the convenience of measurement. It is defined as a semicircular arc on the great circle connecting the North and South Poles on the surface of the earth.

7. Any two meridians are equal in length and intersect at the North and South Poles. Each meridian has a corresponding value, called longitude.

Latitude and longitude letters

East longitude is represented by E, west longitude is represented by W, south latitude is represented by S, and north latitude is represented by N.

Longitude generally refers to the ordinate of the spherical coordinate system. It refers to the angle between the line connecting a point on the earth's surface with the two poles and the plane where the 0 degree meridian is located. It is expressed as the angular distance between the auxiliary circle where the point on the sphere is located and the auxiliary circle where the coordinate origin is located.

Longitude usually refers to the longitude of geographic coordinates. In order to distinguish each region on the earth, people marked the longitude with degrees, which is longitude. In fact, longitude is the angle between the planes where two longitudes are located.

Latitude refers to the angle between a point and the center of the Earth and the equatorial plane of the Earth, and its value ranges from 0 to 90 degrees.

Each longitude and latitude can be further divided into 60 minutes, and each minute can be further divided into 60 seconds and fractions of seconds. Using longitude and latitude, we can determine the specific location of every place on the earth and show it on a map or globe. For example, what is the longitude and latitude of Beijing? We can easily find out from the map that it is 116 degrees 24 minutes east longitude and 39 degrees 54 minutes north latitude.

What are right ascension and declination?

Right ascension and declination refer to the coordinates of the celestial sphere in the universe, similar to the longitude and latitude of the Earth.

1. Right Ascension: The angle from the vernal equinox along the celestial equator to the intersection of the celestial hour circle and the celestial equator is called the right ascension of the celestial body. Right ascension is different from hour angle. Hour angle is measured from the celestial meridian to the west, while right ascension is measured from the vernal equinox to the east. The two directions are opposite;

2. Declination: The angle from the celestial equator along the time circle of the celestial body to the celestial body is called the declination of the celestial body. The celestial equator is the declination of 0 degrees, the north is positive, and the south is negative, ranging from 0 degrees to 90 degrees.