Test: Globes and Maps- 2

The equator is an imaginary circle that divides Earth into two halves. The northern half is called the Northern Hemisphere. The southern half is called the Southern Hemisphere.

A 'small' scale map is one in which a given part of the Earth is represented by a small area on the map.

• All parallel circles from the equator up to the poles are called parallels of latitude.
• Circles of latitude are often called parallels because they are parallel to each other; that is, planes that contain any of these circles never intersect each other.

• Latitudes are measured in degrees.
• 90 degrees north latitude marks the North Pole and 90 degrees south latitude marks the South Pole.

• The equator represents the zero degree latitude.
• It divides the Earth into two equal hemispheres, North and South.

90 Degrees north latitude marks the North Pole and 90 degrees south latitude marks the South Pole.

23 and half degrees in the northern hemisphere is called Tropic of Cancer because:

• When the summer solstice happens in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted about 23.4° (23°27´) toward the Sun.
• Because the Sun's rays are shifted northward from the Equator by the same amount, the vertical noon rays are directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer (23°27´ N).

The tropical, or Torrid Zone, lies near the Equator and extends to the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the south.

• Meridians of longitude are imaginary half-circles running from the North Pole to the South Pole.
• They are sometimes called lines of longitude.

• The 0 degree line of longitude that passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England is the Greenwich Meridian.
• It's also called the Prime Meridian.
• This line is the starting-point for longitudinal lines that run north-south and converge at the poles.