How to Use Longitude and Latitude to Find Miles in Distance From the Equator
Latitude-longitude coordinates can be used to locate any spot on earth. Latitude is 0 at the equator and increases to 90 at the poles. Longitude values range from 0 to 180. Both are measured in degrees, minutes and seconds, like units of time.
Longitude lines all come together at the poles, so the gap between them decreases as you move away from the equator. Latitude lines are always parallel, so the distance from the equator of a latitude-longitude location does not change with longitude. No matter where you stand along a line of latitude, you are the same distance from the equator.
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Instructions
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Calculate the length of a degree of latitude in miles. The circumference of the Earth around its poles is 24,860 miles and there are 360 degrees of latitude. Each degree is slightly more than 69 miles (about 69.05 miles if you need more precision).
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Multiply the degrees portion of the location's latitude by 69. For the example of latitude 29 degrees, 15 minutes, 11 seconds; multiply 29 * 69 = 2001. Record or remember this number.
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Convert the remainder of the latitude to seconds: multiply the minutes by 60 and add the seconds. For the example, 15 minutes * 60 = 900, add 11 seconds to get 911 seconds.
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Divide the sum by 3600 (the number of seconds in a degree) and multiply the result by 69. For the example, (911 / 3600) * 69 = 17.5. Add to the previous number to get the total distance from the equator in miles. For the example, 2001 + 17.5 = 2018.5 miles.
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Tips & Warnings
The Earth is not a perfect sphere, so its circumference around the equator is slightly larger than its circumference around the poles.
If measured very carefully, degrees of latitude are slightly farther apart at the poles than at the equator. This is because the Earth bulges slightly around the middle due to its rotation.
References
- Photo Credit Globe in Hand image by Towards Ithaca from Fotolia.com
