Imagine you are on the ship that crosses the ocean or you go through the desert which has no markings or signs.How can you then describe the place where you are, and that every person in the world understands that?

This is achieved by using latitude and longitude. By using them, we can exactly determine the location on the earths surface.

A globe or a world map usually has vertical and horizontal lines drawn over it.

The horizontal east-west lines are called latitude.

The vertical north-south lines are called longitude.

Latitude is the distance north or south from the Equator.

The Equator is an important reference point.

Latitudes are counted from 0 (the equator) to 90 (the north or south pole) and is either north or south of the equator.

After every 15 degrees there is one line of latitude

Four main lines of latitude : Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic Circle.

The lines of longitude are drawn half circle from the North Pole to the South Pole.

The lines are measured in degrees () to the west or east of the line called the Prime Meridian, which is at longitude 0.

The lines east of the Prime Meridian are measured from 0 to 180 E (East), and the lines west of the Prime Meridian are measured 0 to 180W (West).

At 180E and 180W is a line that is on the opposite side of the world from the Prime Meridian. This line of longitude is known as the International Date Line, from which a new calendar day begins. Unlike the other lines, this International Date Line is not a straight line as it deviates to pass around some territories and island groups.

The position of a place on a map can be describes by its latitude and its longitude.

For example, if you look up New York in an atlas, you will find that is located at latitude 40N. This means New York is in the Northern hemisphere, 40 north of the Equator. It is also located at 73W. This means it is 73 to the west of the Prime Meridian. The global position of New York is 40N, 73W

To precisely locate a place, 1 using latitude and longitude, minutes and seconds are used as well as degrees.

Each degree has 60 minutes, and each minute has 60 seconds.

So when you see latitude and longitude coordinates, the look something like this: 47 3625N, 122 19 12 W

The N tells us to look north of the equator. The 47 3625 before the N shows how far north of the equator we want to be; in this case 47 degrees, 36 minutes and 25 seconds.

Since there is a W, we go to the west of the Prime Meridian. The number before W tell us; 122 degrees, 19 minutes and 12 seconds.

Now we can find the place this latitude and longitude represents by seeing where the latitude and longitude lines we just found intersect. Using the map, can you find the city has this latitude and longitude?

From an atlas, find the global position of Brunei.

The global position of Brunei is 4 30 North and 114 40' East.

Look at the points on the map and identify their location by latitude and longitude