NAVIGATING ALONG THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

The geographical location on the surface of the earth is given by two coordinates – latitude and longitude. The latitude is the angular displacement toward the north or south geographical poles from the equator. These coordinates range from 0^o – 90^oNorth and 0^o – 90^o South from the equator. For example, the latitude of Knoxville, TN is 36^oN. Longitude, on the other hand, is a measure either east or west of the universally accepted N/S line (Prime Meridian) passing through Greenwich, England. Longitude coordinates range from 0^o – 180^o East and 0^o – 180^o West from the Prime Meridian. The longitude of Knoxville, TN is 84^oW. The complete geographical designation of Knoxville is latitude 36^oN, longitude 84^oW. The figure below illustrates the coordinate system for the earth.

There are a number of websites that will allow one to determine the latitude and longitude of a city or road or even your home. One of these sites that also shows city views and terrain features is earth.google.com . And from this site one can download free Google Earth software. From the download, one can zoom in or out from the earth’s surface and easily move about on the map to any location on earth. The latitude and longitude values are shown for the location on which your cursor is located. As an exercise, search around for interesting geographical locations and note the latitudes and longitudes of these locations. The latitude and longitudes are likely to be shown in the form of XX^oYY’ZZ”. This is a more accurate designation of location in terms of angular units of degrees, minutes and seconds where there are 60” to 1’ and 60’ to a degree. For example, the geographical position of Knoxville, TN is more accurately denoted as 35^o58”00.96’N, 83^o55’28.71”W rather than the previous, less accurate values of 36^oN, 84^oW.

DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS

Now let us suppose that you assisting Charles Lindbergh with the planning of his 1927 flight from New York to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis. How would you go about doing this? Well, you might first want to know the latitude and longitude each of New York City and of Paris, France. Then with these coordinates, you would simply calculate the distance between the two locations. This calculation is easily done with the assistance of website http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~cvm/latlongdist.html .

As an exercise or demonstration, determine this distance from New York to Paris.

Distance between New York and Paris:

AVERAGE SPEED DURING THE NEW YORK TO PARIS FLIGHT

Average speed is simply distance divided by time of flight. The flight of Charles Lindbergh’s New York to Paris flight was approximately 33 1/2 hours. Determine the average speed of the Spirit of St. Louis.

Average Speed = Distance/Time:

How does that speed compare with the speed of today’s military jets? Wow!!!!! Aviation has made great progress since 1927