Map Elements

Today I will be talking about latitude, longitude, hemispheres, directions, time zones, scales and map legends.

Let's start with latitude and longitude. The world has imaginary lines that help you locate a specific place. The lines that go east to west are called latitude lines while the lines that go north to south are called longitude lines. These lines are measured in degrees. In the middle of the world going east to west is the equator which is 0 degrees latitude while the prime meridian which goes north to south is 0 degrees longitude as shown on this map below.

Now let's go to hemispheres (means half earth) So if you think about it, it should be two halves but you are meant to count the Equator as a line and the prime meridian as a line so you end up with four quarters the north, south, east and west.

Just about every map has a compass rose which tells you which way north is so you know in what direction everything is. Another thing you have to remember is that there are two different kinds of directions: Cardinal directions which are north, south, east and west, and Intermediate directions which are northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest.

Onto map legends now. A map legend is just like an instruction manual which tells you what kind of map it is, a scale (which I will tell you about later) and little diagrams that tell you what they mean on the map.

A Scale is a graph that shows you how long a specific distance is on the map.

Time zones are lines on the map that show you the difference in time between other places, for example; the difference between New York and Vancouver is that New York is always three hours ahead.

Jake-ee

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