Geographic coordinate system - Video Learning - WizScience.com

• published: 04 Sep 2015
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A "geographic coordinate system" is a coordinate system that enables every location on the Earth to be specified by a set of numbers or letters. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents vertical position, and two or three of the numbers represent horizontal position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a geographic coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who composed his now-lost "Geography" at the Library of Alexandria in the 3rd century BC. A century later, Hipparchus of Nicaea improved upon his system by determining latitude from stellar measurements rather than solar altitude and determining longitude by using simultaneous timing of lunar eclipses, rather than dead reckoning. In the 1st or 2nd century, Marinus of Tyre compiled an extensive gazetteer and mathematically-plotted world map, using coordinates measured east from a Prime Meridian at the Fortunate Isles of western Africa and measured north or south of the island of Rhodes off Asia Minor. Ptolemy credited him with the full adoption of longitude and latitude, rather than measuring latitude in terms of the length of the midsummer day. Ptolemy's 2nd-century "Geography" used the same Prime Meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. After their work was translated into Arabic in the 9th century, Al-Khwārizmī's "Book of the Description of the Earth" corrected Marinus and Ptolemy's errors regarding the length of the Mediterranean Sea, causing medieval Arabic cartography to use a Prime Meridian around 10° east of Ptolemy's line. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes's recovery of Ptolemy's text a little before 1300; the text was translated into Latin at Florence by Jacobus Angelus around 1406. Wiz Science™ is "the" learning channel for children and all ages. SUBSCRIBE TODAY Disclaimer: This video is for your information only. The author or publisher does not guarantee the accuracy of the content presented in this video. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Background Music: "The Place Inside" by Silent Partner (royalty-free) from YouTube Audio Library. This video uses material/images from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic+coordinate+system, which is released under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ . This video is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ . To reuse/adapt the content in your own work, you must comply with the license terms.