Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings

The latitude of your location is a geographic coordinate that indicates your position on the earth's surface relative to the north and south poles. You can determine the latitude value over the Internet, on a real map, using a protractor, or using some other tricks. If you want to know how to find your latitude, see Step 1 to get started.

Steps

1. 1 Use online latitude and longitude search engines on the Internet. If you search for “how to find your latitude,” you get several websites to help you find latitude and longitude values. To obtain information on these sites, you only need to indicate the exact address of your location, and you will know your latitude within a few seconds.A particularly user-friendly NASA website, once you enter an address by moving the cursor around your area, you can track the minimum changes in latitude and longitude. Make sure you are using a free site that does not require information fees.
2. 2 Use of Google Maps. You can also find latitude quickly using Google Maps. Here's everything you need to do:
   • Open Google Maps.
   • Enter your address.
   • Double click on your address and select "what's here?"
   • Read the latitude and longitude values. The first will be the latitude.
3. 3 Use of a real card. As you know, in the past, all maps did not include the word Google in the title. The latitude values ​​can be found by opening the map (everything is in order, you can also find the map on the Internet) and finding your location on it. Although this will not be as accurate as entering your address on the Internet, nevertheless, if you can read the map, you can get reasonably acceptable coordinates measurement results. The latitude on the map runs horizontally and the longitude runs vertically. To determine your location, you will need a ruler or other object with straight, flat edges. Draw a horizontal straight line from a point on the map to the nearest latitude coordinate scale and determine the value. This is how you can find your latitude.
4. 4 Using the North Star and the protractor. While this is a fairly lengthy method for determining latitude, it can be interesting from the standpoint of conducting an experiment to calculate your location. Here's what you need to do:
   • Find the Big Bucket in the sky. This constellation is also known as the Big Dipper or the Plow and looks like a large spoon.
   • Find the back of the "plow blade". This is the end of the ladle, farthest from the handle of the spoon.
   • Set aside the four lengths of the back of the "plow blade", approximately at the end of this distance will be the pole star. You can also use the constellation Cassiopeia. It represents a seated queen and bears a resemblance to "W", which is at the same distance from the North Star. The position of this star never changes.
   • Draw a visual line between Polaris and your point of position.
   • Take a protractor and measure the angle between the visual beam and the horizon, which should be 90 degrees to the plumb line. This will be your latitude.
5. 5 Use an astrolabe. If you have an astrolabe, all you have to do is lie down on the ground and find the pole star using step 4. Use the astrolabe to determine the angle of the pole star and write it down. This will be the zenith angle. Then subtract that angle from 90 degrees to get latitude.
   • Using the astrolabe is not the easiest, but quite entertaining way of finding latitude. You can make your own astrolabe using a protractor, a plastic tube, a metal weight, and a piece of string. Tie a rope with a weight to the hole in the middle of the protractor. Now, all you have to do is adjust the plastic tube along the flat edge of the protractor and you're done.

Tips

• A simple rule: the height of the North Star is equal to the latitude of the observer.

Warnings

• This only works in the northern hemisphere!
• Polaris will be the North Star until 7500, the moment when Alpha Sepeia becomes the North Star due to a shift in the Earth's axis of rotation.