The meridians of longitude are imaginary great circles drawn from pole to pole around the earth. By international agreement, the meridian of longitude passing through Greenwich, England, is numbered zero. The earth is divided into 360 degrees, and the meridians are numbered east and west from Greenwich. There are 180 degrees of longitude east of Greenwich and 180 degrees in the westerly direction. New York has a longitude of 74 degrees west which means it lies on the 74th meridian west of Greenwich.
Since the sun appears to travel around the earth in 24 hours, it will move 360/24 or 15 degrees in one hour. This reasoning can be used by navigators to determine their longitude. Imagine that we have set sail from Greenwich, England, after having set a very accurate clock, or chronometer, to the local Greenwich time. As we travel westward toward New York, we notice that the sun is going “slower” than our chronometer. At the time that our timepiece reads 12 o’clock, the sun has not quite reached the zenith. As a matter of fact, when our clock reads noon, what it really means is that it’s noon in Greenwich, England. Our clock continues to tell us the time, not at our present location, but at Greenwich. Let us wait until the sun is directly overhead (noon at our location) and then read the time on our clock. Suppose it reads 1 o’clock. This means that there is one hour’s difference in time between our longitude and that of Greenwich. As we mentioned earlier, this corresponds to exactly 15 degrees of longitude, so our longitude must be 15 degrees west. The world is divided into 24 time zones, and each zone corresponds to 15 degrees of longitude. New York is approximately 5 time zones west of Greenwich, so the time difference must be about 5 hours. By maintaining chronometers on Greenwich time, ships can determine their longitude on any sunny day by merely noting the difference in hours between Greenwich time and local sun time and multiplying this difference by 15 degrees.
Of course, longitude gives only half of the information needed to determine our precise location. We must also know our latitude, which tells us how far we are north or south of the equator. The Equator is the zero line for the measurement of latitude. Circles are drawn parallel to the Equator to indicate other values of latitude. There are 90 degrees of south latitude.
In the Northern Hemisphere, there is a star called Polaris almost directly over the North Pole. This makes it possible to determine the latitude of a given point by setting our sextant to measure the angle between Polaris, the North Star, and the horizon. Mathematicians tell us that this angle is equal to the latitude at the point in question.
To get an idea of our location, therefore, we need to know the local time, Greenwich time, and the angle between Polaris and the horizon.
1. In order to get the precise location of a ship, the navigator must know（ ）.
2. In order to determine latitude, the navigator must know（ ）.
3. A navigator’s chronometer will always show（ ）.
4. In relation to the earth, the sun will move（ ）.
5. It can be inferred that the number of degrees of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere is（ ）.
