How are the lines of latitude and longitude alike?

Answer 1

A few similarities include:

-- Both are sets of imaginary lines. You may be standing exactly on one, or
driving, sailing or flying over it, but you see no line there.

-- Both are loci (locuses) of constant angles. One is a locus of constant latitude,
the other is a locus of constant longitude.

-- Both are markers of angles corresponding to the familiar, ordinary, everyday
polar coordinate system.

-- Both are almost universally misunderstood.

-- There is no limit to the number of either set. There are potentially an infinite number
of longitude lines, since a line may be drawn at any longitude. And there are potentially
an infinite number of latitude lines, since a line may be drawn at any latitude.

-- Every member of one set intersects ALL of the members of the other set.

-- Both may or may not be printed on any given globe or map. It's the publisher's choice.

-- When they are printed on a map or globe, the interval between lines is also completely
up to the publisher.


A few differences include:

-- All longitude lines intersect, but no latitude lines intersect.

-- Latitude lines are complete circles, but longitude lines are semi-circles.

-- Latitude lines are all parallel, but no two longitude lines are parallel.

-- All longitude lines are 1/2 of a great circle of the Earth, but only one latitude line
(the equator) is a great circle of the Earth.

-- All longitude lines are the same length, but for each latitude line, there is only
one other that has the same length.

-- Longitude lines are all centered on the Earth's center, but latitude lines are all
centered somewhere on the Earth's axis.

Answer 2

Both are curved lines along the Earth's surface representing planar angles; both are divided into degrees, minutes, and seconds; and both can have the same degree length, very near the equator.

* At the equator, degrees of latitude and longitude have the same nominal length of 69 nautical miles (111 km), although longitude is actually slightly longer. Farther north or south, longitude degrees represent shorter distances, becoming zero at the poles.

Answer 3

they both measure certain points on a globe or map of the world.