Superlesson
Project 1-1
Foundations of Algebra and Geometry
Chapter 1, Working With Data
Maps and map views provide lots of information -- from longitude and latitude to mileage.
Part A, Numbers and Location
1. Longitude (the number of degrees going east or west) and latitude (the number of degrees going north or south) have been used by sailors for centuries to locate various places on the earth. Learn more about longitude and latitude at the University of Tennessee's Science bytes site.
a. Draw a view of the earth with lines of longitude shown.
b. Draw a view of the earth with lines of latitude shown.
2. Visualize your drawings in 1 from the top of the earth.
a. Which lines form concentric circles -- longitude or latitude?
b. Which lines form the bearings -- longitude or latitude?
3. You can use a number line instead of a circular grid to represent the locations of points. Draw a number line from -180° to +180°. Put tick marks every 20°. The number line will represent the longitude of various cities. For example, a longitude of 30° West would be plotted at -30°. So going West of 0° is a negative number of degrees and going East of 0° is a positive number of degrees. Look at the List of cities around the world, find the longitude of the cities below, and plot them on your number line.
a. San Francisco, USA
b. Cairo, Egypt
c. Hong Kong, China
d. Sydney, Australia
e. Abidjan, Ivory Coast
f. Guatemala City, Guatemala
Part B, Coordinate Grids
4. Make a coordinate grid so that (0, 0) represents 0° longitude and 0° latitude. Look at the List of cities around the world, find the longitude and latitude of the cities below, and plot their locations on the coordinate grid. Your x-axis should go from -180 to +180. Your y-axis should go from -90 to +90.
a. Havana, Cuba
b. Panama City, Panama
c. London, UK
d. Johannesburg, South Africa
e. Ankara, Turkey
f. Bangkok, Thailand
g. Honolulu, USA
h. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil