We can identify any place on the Earth using a combination of latitude and longitude numbers. Latitude helps us to say where a place is from the north to the south. Longitude says where it is around the circumference of the world from east to west. The equator is at latitude 0 degrees and the poles are at 90 degrees north and south. So all the other latitudes are measured in between 0 and 90 north or south. Longitude is measured in degrees east or west of the Greenwich Meridian. Positions east and west of this line are measured in degrees up to 180, exactly half way round. So measures are 0 to 180 degrees east or west.
Tropics and Circles
The 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth's axis means that the highest latitudes at which the Sun is directly overhead are 23.5 degrees north and south of the equator. These are called the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Similarly the Arctic Circle and Antarctic Circle lie 23.5 degrees from the poles, that is at 66.5 degrees north and south of the equator. These mark the boundaries from the poles of areas experiencing 24 hours of daylight in midsummer, or ‘lands of the midnight sun', and 24 hours of darkness in midwinter.
