Longitude
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Longitude is a way to say where a place is on the Earth. It is measured starting from an imaginary north-south line called the Prime Meridian. (A meridian is an imaginary line drawn from the North Pole to the South Pole.) Longitude says how far east or west of the Prime Meridian some place is.
Longitude is measured using degrees, same way an angle is. The Prime Meridian is 0° (zero degrees), and the furthest away is +180° eastward and −180° westward. Unlike latitude, which has the equator as a natural starting position, there is no natural starting position for longitude. Other meridians have been used in the past, but most scientists now agree to use the Prime Meridian.
