Eli5 why there are more lines of Longitude then Latitude
In: 35
Latitude is based on fixed real-world geography: the equator is the equator and the poles are the poles, and they would be there no matter what species was figuring out latitude. The only thing we contributed is how many degrees of latitude we stuffed between them (instead of 90 we could have went with 10 or 519).
Longitude is arbitrary; while it makes sense to make lines that run between the poles, the actual positions of the lines are something we invented. Another species could have put the prime meridian five feet to the left. Longitude circles are only half-circles and stop at the poles where they “start over” as the other half (W versus E); it wouldn’t make any sense to have one circle that goes all the way around, because then you’d have two “15N latitude 30 longitude”s.
Latest Answers