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I just read about latitudes and longitudes. I read latitudes are imaginary lines that run around the earth and longitudes are lines that run around from top to bottom.

Using this system: 

1. How is exact position determined in degrees?   
2. Why is the equator represented as zero degrees?
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Feels like a homework question – Nathan W Jun 28 '12 at 23:29
There are several ways to approach this question. Are you perhaps looking for something like en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_longitude? – whuber♦ Jun 29 '12 at 13:30

migrated from physics.stackexchange.com Jun 28 '12 at 22:11

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Google = wiki = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_coordinate_system#Latitude_and_longitude_in_practice

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Note the discussion of that section: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… – blah238 Jun 29 '12 at 4:23

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