Geography For Dummies. Jerry T. Mitchell

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      (© John Wiley & Sons Inc.)

      FIGURE 3-2: The basics of the global grid.

      Avoiding gridlock

      The naming game

      Similar to the roads in Gridville, the global grid contains a principal line of latitude (the equator) and a principal line of longitude (the prime meridian). All other lines of latitude and longitude are named and numbered respectively from these starting lines. It makes sense, therefore, that if you want to make like Hipparchus and draw a grid on a globe, then these are the first two lines you would draw. But where would you put them, and why?

      The equator

Because Earth is sphere-like, no compelling locale cries out and says, “Use me to locate the equator!” So where to put it? Old Hipparchus might simply have said, “It’s Greek to me!” and placed it anywhere. Instead, he wrestled with the challenge and came up with an ingenious solution.

      He knew that Earth is sphere-like and that it rotates around an imaginary line called the axis. Look on a globe and you find two fixed points, halfway around Earth from each other, where the axis intersects Earth’s surface: the North Pole and the South Pole. So, Hipparchus drew a line that ran all the way around the globe and was always an equal distance (hence, equator) from the two Poles. The result is a latitudinal “starting line” from which all others could be placed on the globe.

      The prime meridian

      The longitudinal “starting line” is called the prime meridian, which signifies its importance as the line from which all other lines of longitude are numbered. Locating this line proved more problematic than locating the equator. Quite simply, no logical equivalent of the equator exists with respect to longitude. Thus, while the equator came into general use as the latitudinal starting line, mapmakers were perfectly free to draw the longitudinal starting line anywhere they pleased. And that is what they did.

      Typically, mapmakers drew the prime meridian right through their country’s capital city. By the late 1800s, lack of a universal prime meridian had become a real pain in the compass. International trade and commerce were growing. Countries were claiming territory that would become colonial empires. But one country’s world maps did not agree with another’s, and the international climate made it increasingly advisable that they do so. I have a map hanging in my living room to prove the point! There are different longitude coordinates at the top of the map compared to those at the bottom. Both were given to aid a map reader more used to a coordinate system beginning with a different meridian.

      As a result of this growing confusion, in 1884 the International Meridian Conference was convened in Washington, D.C. to promote the adoption of a common prime meridian. Out of that was born an agreement to adopt the British system of longitude as the world standard. Thus, the global grid’s prime meridian passes right through the Royal Greenwich Observatory (which is in the London suburb of Greenwich) as well as parts of western Europe and Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean. The British system was chosen largely because in 1884 Britain was the world’s major military and economic power, and also had a fine tradition of mapmaking.

Getting Lined Up

      With the starting lines in place, one can now contemplate putting all of the other lines of latitude and longitude on a globe. In doing that, Hipparchus used the notion that 360 degrees (°) are in a circle (But why 360? See the sidebar “Why is Earth 360° round?”). Accordingly, he drew lines of latitude such that each and every one is separated by one degree of arc from the next. He then did the same with longitude. This is why lines of latitude and longitude are referred to as degrees.

      Latitude