Test: Globe Latitudes And Longitudes

• The Earth is divided by the Equator into two equal halves known as the Northern Hemisphere (with 90 parallels) and the Southern Hemisphere (with 90 parallels).
• These 180 parallels along with the Equator make a total of 181 parallels across the globe.
  

• Meridians on the globe starts with the Prime Meridian at Greenwich, which is marked as zero degree.
• All the meridians are drawn at an interval of one degree from the Prime Meridian. There are 180 meridians to the east and 180 to the west of the Prime Meridian.
• Thus, there are 360 meridians on the globe.
  

► The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's North Pole.

► The Southern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is south of the Equator. It contains all or parts of five continents, four oceans and most of the Pacific Islands in Oceania. Its surface is 80.9% water, compared with 60.7% water in the case of the Northern Hemisphere, and it contains 32.7% of Earth's land.

The standard meridian of India is 82°30'E. It passes through Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh). The time of this meridian is taken as the standard time for the whole country.

The Frigid Zone lies near the Poles. The climate in the Polar Regions is very cold that is why the area is known as the Frigid Zone. It includes the area around the North Pole and the South Pole.

• The Prime Meridian runs through Greenwich, England and is at 0° longitude. For many years, different countries measured longitude from different meridians.
• The French and Algerians, for example, used the Paris Meridian; the Swedes measured from one that passed through Stockholm.

• The word globe comes from the Latin word globus which means round mass or sphere.
• A terrestrial globe is a three dimensional scaled model of Earth.
• The fact that earth resembles a sphere was established by Greek astronomy in the third century BC and the earliest globes came from that period.
• Unlike maps, the globe is a representation which is free from distortions (distortion in shape, area).
   

• Longitude lines are a numerical way to show/measure how far a location is east or west of a universal vertical line called the Prime Meridian.
• This Prime Meridian line runs vertically, north and south, right over the British Royal Observatory in Greenwich England, from the North Pole to the South Pole.

• The area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn is known as the Torrid Zone.
• The mid-day Sun is exactly overhead at least once a year on all the latitudes in this area; hence, this area receives maximum amount of heat.

A Prime Meridian is a meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°.