Length vs. Latitude
What is Difference between Length and Latitude? Surely more than once you have heard the words latitude and longitude. You may have heard them mentioned several times while taking the subject of Geography, but if you are here it is because you probably want more information about it.
Difference between Length and Latitude
If you want to know the difference between length and latitude, then continue reading because then we explain it to you.
Latitude
Like length, it is used to specify the location of a point on the earth by geographic coordinates. Latitude is represented by the Greek letter phi (Φ).
This measurement provides the location of a point based on the distance to the same from the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere (taking the equator as a base). It is expressed in degrees and each degree has 60 minutes and in each minute there are 60 seconds.
There is an imaginary line from the equator to 90 ° (by the North Pole and South Pole). The latitudes are not only parallel but also equidistant. All degrees of latitudes are approximately 69 miles apart.
There are 180 latitude lines (the most notable are: the equator, tropic of cancer and tropic of Capricorn) and the land is divided into 3 main latitudinal zones: temperate zone, intertropical zone and polar zone. Latitude is used to classify zones according to their temperature.
The values for latitudes are expressed in positive numbers when they belong to the northern hemisphere and negative when they belong to the south. Frequently the letters N and S are used to specify a location.
Length
On the other hand, the length specifies the location of a point based on the distance between the east and west of the imaginary line connecting the North and South Poles (the meridian).
It is represented by the Greek letter lambda (λ) and like the latitude, is also expressed in degrees. Unlike the latitude that goes from 0 to 90 degrees (North – South), the length goes from 0 to 180 degrees (East – West). It also differs from latitude because all locations that have the same length fall in the same time zone.
There are 360 lines in length, the most notable being the Greenwich Meridian. Length is not used to classify zones based on their climate, but rather time or time zone. The letters E and O are often used to refer to east and west respectively. When it comes to the first, positive values are assigned, while for the west the values are negative.
