Seeing the latitude and longitude notations in a photo I posted yesterday reminded me that I wanted to learn more about the whole latitude/longitude subject. I found this site that tells you exactly where you are (click here) and punched in Scotland, Maryland.
I won’t even begin to try and explain how Latitude and Longitude are computed but you can check it out on your own if you care to do so. It all has to with a bunch of math stuff based on angles and stuff I once thought I knew but now don’t even have a clue about.
However, to simplify things, I do recall somebody telling me that the way to differentiate between the two is just remember that Longitude is “long” as in up and down and that Latitude comes from the Latin word Latus which means wide. When you see a notation for the two, Latitude is always listed first. (Just think alphabetically.)
Thus, Scotland’s 38° Latitude represents distance from the equator while the -76° indicates the distance from the Prime Meridian located in the UK. The minus indicates going westward from the Prime Meridian.
When thinking about a song to include here, What’s the Frequency Kenneth popped into my head. It has nothing to do with latitude and longitude but does bring up knowing or not knowing where you are at any given time.