We will now learn how to find places on maps of the Earth using information about hemispheres and lines of longitude and latitude.
Planet Earth is a sphere. To make it easier to describe the location of a particular place, we talk about hemispheres.
A hemisphere is literally a half of a sphere.
Hemispheres
The Earth has an imaginary line called the Equator running around the middle of it like a belt. This is at zero degrees latitude.
Places north of the Equator are described as being in Northern Hemisphere and places south of the Equator are said to be in the Southern Hemisphere.
It is also possible to describe a location as being in the Eastern or Western Hemisphere.
Here the dividing line is zero degrees longitude.
This is also known as the Prime Meridian.
Places to the east of the Prime Meridian are said to be in the Eastern Hemisphere and those to the west of the Prime Meridian are said to be in the Western Hemisphere.
Hemispheres Quiz