What does the distance covered by a degree of longitude depend on?

Question

Geography

Colby Irwin

31 October, 08:46

What does the distance covered by a degree of longitude depend on?

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Answers (1)

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Sawyer Brady · Answer 1

It depends on the latitude where you measure it.

It's about 69 miles on the equator, and it shrinks to zero at the poles.

In general, at any latitude,

Distance covered by 1 degree of longitude =

(69 miles) x [ cosine (latitude where it's measured) ]