1. Our Location in the World

2. Location can be broken down into two categories:  1. Absolute Location: Where a place is located geographically; it’s exact location on a grid. To find this, geographers use a latitude and longitude grid.

3. Parallels of Latitude:  These are imaginary parallel lines drawn on a map that measure location north or south of the Equator.  Latitude is measured in degrees from 0°at the Equator to 90° at the North and South Poles.

4. Meridians of Longitude  These are imaginary lines that measure location east or west of the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian is an imaginary line that is drawn from the North Pole to the South Pole. It passes through the Greenwich Observatory in London, England. Longitude is measured from 0° at the Prime Meridian to 180° on the opposite side of the world.

5. The Coordinate Grid  By putting the lines of latitude and longitude together, you have a grid. By stating the latitude, which always comes first, and then the longitude, you have the absolute location of a particular place.

6. Distance Between the Lines:  If you divide the circumference of the earth (approximately 25,000 miles) by 360 degrees, the distance on the earth's surface for each one degree of latitude or longitude is just over 69 miles, or 111 km.

7. Note on Lines of Longitude:  As you move north or south of the equator, the distance between the lines of longitude gets shorter until they actually meet at the poles. At 45 degrees N or S of the equator, one degree of longitude is about 49 miles.

8. Relative Location  2.  2. Relative Location: This way of measuring location simply states where a place is in relation to other places. In stating relative location, you may include distance (ex. A few km from the sea) or direction (ex. East of the Pacific or West of the Atlantic).