What is the difference between latitude and longitude?

• A. Latitude measures north-south position.
• B. Longitude measures east-west position.
• C. Latitude measures east-west position; longitude measures north-south position.
• D. Latitude measures north-south position; longitude measures east-west position.

Answer: (D)

Latitude and longitude describe where a place sits on the globe by two directions: how far north or south you are, and how far east or west you are. Latitude measures north-south position, running parallel to the equator around the world. Longitude measures east-west position, running from pole to pole and measured from the Prime Meridian. For example, a location like 40.7° N, 74° W shows both how far north and how far west it is. The correct idea is that latitude is about north-south position and longitude is about east-west position. The other statements are incomplete or swap the directions, so they don’t convey the full, correct relationship.