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Prime meridian definition5/28/2023 ![]() ![]() At the opposite end of the Earth, at #180^0# longitude is the meridian where east and west also meet. Any line of longitude (a meridian) can serve as the 0 longitude line. The prime meridian is arbitrary, meaning it could be chosen to be anywhere. Today's definition, the "Greenwich Meridian" was selected in 1884, by the International Meridian Conference in the United States, which also determined the standard of time zones used throughout the world.Įverything west of the prime meridian is called the western hemisphere, and east of it is the eastern hemisphere. The prime meridian is the line of 0 longitude, the starting point for measuring distance both east and west around Earth. It's definition has changed over time in different parts of the world. Unlike the equator, which is determined by the Earth's axis of rotation and the location of it's poles, the prime meridian is essentially arbitrarily drawn. The difference between seasons is minimal in areas near the Equator, and temperatures are generally high year round (with exceptions based on altitude). It is sometimes referred to as the Greenwich Meridian. The Equator on earth is an interesting place because of the Earth's rotation. The Prime Meridian is an imaginary line that, similar to the equator, divides the earth into eastern and western hemispheres. In general, equators are features of all orbiting planets, defined as "the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and midway between the poles" ( Wikipedia ). The prime meridian is an imaginary line dividing the earth into East and West Hemispheres, at 0° longitude. Navigation at sea was extremely difficult, resulting in countless disasters and disappearances over the centuries because ships' captains simply could not figure out where they were.įor instance, on October 22, 1707, more than 1,400 British sailors died because a storm caused the fleet's navigators to lose their location then the navigators and naval officers mistook the craggy archipelago on which the fleet wrecked for the western entrance to the English Channel.The equator is an imaginary line dividing the earth into North and South Hemispheres, at 0° latitude. ![]() ![]() Indeed, before the Guide and Almanac, the world had a deadly longitude problem. ![]() A prime meridian and its anti-meridian (180th meridian in a. That's because defining zero degrees longitude-which effectively divides the world into East and West-is the first step toward finding every other point of longitude on the map, and finding your way in general. Hint: Prime Meridian is in a geographic coordinate system where longitude is defined to be 0. Any device that uses maps and geolocation-from smartphones to global positioning system (GPS) devices to GPS-enabled trucks, airplanes, and ships-still hails the prime meridian flag that Maskelyne planted at his observatory, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, two-and-a-half centuries ago. Nevil Maskelyne's 1763 The British Mariner's Guide-and his follow-up The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris, published annually beginning in 1766-would set the standard for nautical navigation for decades to come.Īnd though the world has largely forgotten the Guide and Almanac, modern technology has not. Some 250 years ago, a British astronomer published the first of a series of guidebooks that would ultimately establish Greenwich, England, as the world's zero-degree longitude location, the "prime meridian." ![]()
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