Map Elements: Brought to You by Marc Levin

Latitude, Longitude, the Hemispheres, Directions, Time Zones, Scales, and much, more! Where to start? I think the beginning.

The earth is divided into lots of imaginary lines called longitude, and latitude. Longitude lines go from the North to the South, and latitude lines go from the East to West. What helps remember latitude is to think of the lateral pass given by football player (American). These lines are measured in degrees

In this picture we can roughly make out the lines of longitude and latitude.

Also in this picture we can make out the Equator and Prime Meridian. What are those?
The Equator is the middle latitude line and is O degrees. Countries near by the Equator are some of the hottest places on the earth. The Equator goes from the East to the West

The Prime Meridian, is the exact opposite of the Equator. The Prime Meridian is the middle longitude line, but is also O degrees. The Prime Meridian goes from the North to South.

Hemisphere is such a long word, what does it mean? Hemi= Half/Sphere= 3D circle (earth). If you do the math one hemisphere is half the earth. The Equator and the Prime Meridian split the world into four hemispheres. North hemisphere, South hemisphere, East hemisphere, and the West hemisphere.

What garden can I find the Compass Rose in? None silly, a Compass Rose is not a flower, a Compass Rose tells us which direction is which. A Compass Rose is on a map. A Compass Rose shows the Cardinal Direction- North, South, East, West. A Compass Rose also shows the Intermediate Directions- North, South, East, West. Now when I ask you what a Compass Rose is I would like to hear a proper answer! :)

To me Scales are a really cool feature that comes with maps. An example of a scale would be:


Every four inches on the map = one Kilometer. At first it is confusing using scales, but once you get used to it, you can't stop measuring your whole map.

Marc L.
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