One of the spherical coordinates of a point on the Earth’s surface defined by the angular distance from the point to the equator.
- Latitude is usually expressed in spherical degrees.
- All points on the same parallel have the same latitude.
Educational note
Latitude is a geographical coordinate represented by an angular value that specifies the position of a point on Earth (or on another planet) north or south of the equator (the reference plane). When they are connected to one another, the locations on Earth that have the same latitude form a circle whose plane is parallel to that of the equator, which is where the other term for latitude, “parallel,” comes from.