LATITUDE (

See also:

• LAT

Lat. latitudo, latus, broad)  , a word meaning breadth or width, hence, figuratively, freedom from restriction, but more generally used in the geographical and astronomical sense here treated . The latitude of a point on the earth's surface is its angular distance from the equator, measured on the curved surface of the earth . The direct measure of this distance being impracticable, it has to be determined by astronomical observations . As thus determined it is the angle between the direction of the plumb-line at the place and the plane of the equator . This is identical with the angle between the horizontal planes at the place and at the equator, and also with the elevation of the celestial pole above the horizon (see ASTRONOMY) . Latitude thus determined by the plumb-line is termed astronomical . The geocentric latitude of a place is the angle which the line from the earth's centre to the place makes with the plane of the equator . Geographical latitude, which is used in mapping, is based on the supposition that the earth is an elliptic spheroidthe plumb-line . The latitude of a celestial object is the angle which the line drawn from some fixed point of reference to the object makes with the plane of the ecliptic . Variability of Terrestrial Latitudes.—The latitude of a point on the earth's surface, as above defined, is measured from the equator . The latter is defined by the condition that its plane makes a right angle with the earth's axis of rotation . It follows that if the points in which this axis intersects the earth's surface, i.e. the poles of the earth, change their positions on the earth's surface, the position of the equator will also change, and there-fore the latitudes of places will change also .

About the end of the 19th

century research showed that there actually was a very minute but measurable periodic change of this kind . The north and south poles, instead of being fixed points on the earth's surface, wander round within a circle about 50 ft. in diameter . The result is a variability of terrestrial latitudes generally . To show the cause of this motion, let BQ represent a section of an oblate spheroid through its shortest axis, PP . We may consider this spheroid to be that of the earth, the ellipticity being greatly exaggerated . If set in rotation around its axis of figure PP, it will continue to rotate around that axis for an indefinite time .