Hey everyone! I'm so excited that you're back and joining me again for project maps. Oh man,
this felt like such a long time since I've seen you all. Whoa, what's - oh, oh my mouth.
Well, that actually has something to do with what we're learning
about today. Today we're going to be going over latitude and longitude.
Now before on project maps, we learned about the compass rose, the map key,
and the map grid. Now, who remembers what these are? Sometimes I forget. So let's go over them a
little bit. All right, so the compass rose is like a compass for your map. It shows you directions:
north, south, east, and west. And the map key shows you all the symbols that mean different
places on your map. And finally, the map grid is a series of rows and columns that help you
find where you need to go on your map. Man, I wish I could just invent something
that helped you remember everything you ever learned. I would be famous.
If you were gonna get famous for something, what would it be for?
Would it be that you discovered that unicorns really exist?
Would you discover a whole new planet? Would you make the next best video game?
Let me tell you about a guy who was really famous in the world of maps. He lived a long time ago,
and his name was Ptolemy. Yeah, that's a weird spelling, I know. His name starts with a P,
but it's silent. So it sounds like it starts with the T for Ptolemy.
So Ptolemy was one of the most famous geographers to have ever lived, and we're going to talk about
how his ideas still help us today. This is one of the earliest and oldest maps we know about.
It's clear that maps have changed quite a bit since this one. This is an ancient Babylonian
map of the world. It was carved on clay and it dates back to about 600 B.C. That means it's over
2,000 years old. This is the kind of map that Ptolemy worked with. Ptolemy was born around
100 A.D., and he was a Roman citizen, and he loved math and astronomy and poetry, and he especially
loved geography. Ptolemy gave us something very special when it comes to maps. He's famous for
giving us map coordinates, or those lines we see on the map. We can see them here on a modern day
map. The lines that go across show latitude, and the lines that go up and down show longitude.
Have you ever looked at a map and thought to yourself, what are all these lines doing here?
Well, remember the grid or the squares on our safari map? They helped us find our way, right?
Well, these imaginary lines that Ptolemy came up with also help us find our way. The latitude
and longitude lines for a grid or squares, just like on our safari map. Now these lines aren't
real. You can't go outside and look at the ground and see a line that helps you find your way. But
these imaginary lines will still help you when you're reading a map. Today you can use a GPS
system in your car or on your phone to figure out where you are, but it hasn't always been that way.
We've always been able to figure out where we're going or where we are thanks to these
lines that Ptolemy came up with. This big imaginary line runs right through the middle
of our map. It's almost like it's cutting the Earth in half. This line is called the equator.
This area above the equator is north of the equator, and the area down below the equator is
south of the equator. Okay, here's where it gets good. These lines that run north of the equator
and that run south of the equator are called latitude lines. Hold your arms out like this.
This is the way that latitude lines run, across. You can also just say lat lines are flat lines.
Can you see how the lines are numbered from 0 to 90 in this map? The 0 and 90 are coordinates,
just like on our safari map. Every latitude line has a number, as well as a letter N,
to show that it's north of the equator, or S to show that it's south of the equator.
Moving up from the equator is moving north, and moving down away from the equator is moving south.
Stay tuned for more info on Ptolemy's imaginary lines. But first it's time for our map rap.
It's a rap about maps, a rap about maps. North, south, east, west. I look at a map
when I'm on my quest. Where am I going? What's the map showing? Is there a lake or a mountain,
or a river that's flowing? It's a rap about maps, a rap about maps. North, south, east, west. Tuck
it in my pocket when I'm wearing a vest. Knowing how to read a map, now that's the key. I've got
a few handy. Come on and follow me. Maps, maps, I love to read them. Maps, maps, I love to hold
them. Maps, maps, maps, maps, and everybody has trouble trying to fold them. It's a rap
about maps, a rap about maps. North, south, east, west. When you're on a journey, maps
are the best.
That's a rap about maps, a rap about maps. Welcome back. Now before, we were talking about latitude
lines that run north and south of the equator. Now we need to add our east and west part of our
coordinates. This is the prime meridian. The equator is a line that divides our map into
north and south. The prime meridian is a line that divides our map into east and west. It also has a
coordinate of zero. Longitude lines are the lines that run east and west of the prime meridian. An
easy way to remember which way longitude lines go is the word long. Longitude lines are long.
The long longitude lines go east and west of the prime meridian, and they go from coordinate zero
all the way to coordinate 180. Okay, now it's time to put our latitude and longitude lines together.
If we use our latitude and longitude lines and our coordinates, we can find any location on the map.
Latitude lines first. I like to say flat first, long last to help me remember. Huh, I wonder if
Ptolemy used that same trick to tell him which was which. The coordinates of our first mystery
location are 0 and 60 west. Remember, we look for latitude first because latitude has an attitude if
we don't. Here is our latitude line at zero. Next let's find 60 west, which is the longitude line.
Follow the lines. Where do they lead us? Brazil. Our next mystery location is 30 north and 30 east.
Don't forget latitude first. So 30 north is our latitude. Then 30 east is our longitude.
Where do they meet? Egypt. All right, one more. Now you're becoming an expert at this. Here we go.
Latitude is 30 south and longitude is 135 east. And the mystery location is Australia. Great work.
Ptolemy would be proud. A great way to explore coordinates using latitude and longitude is
through geocaching. Geocaching is a game people play, where they use a map, GPS, or other
navigational tools to hide and seek containers or caches at specific locations. Maybe you and your
family would want to pick up geocaching as a new hobby, practicing your map skills. You can also
have fun with your family by picking out mystery locations on a map. Don't be afraid to show off
your new skills. Take turns giving each other coordinates and then race to find the locations.
All right, that's it for today. Thanks so much for watching, and remember to always be clever.