Suppose that your family lost their way as they were driving across the country. What would they do? Most people carry a map to help them figure out where they are. They can also look at road signs and count the miles as they cross each intersection to find their location. On a larger map of the world, those intersectionsor lines are called latitudes and longitude! The parallel lines of latitude run east and west around the earth and start at the equator at 0 degrees. Slowly they increase to 90 degrees both north and south at the poles. All the parallel lines of longitude, called meridians, run north and south from pole to pole, across the equator, dividing the earth into sections that look sort of like an orange. The 0-degree point for longitude, known as the prime meridian, crosses the equator and passes through London, England. If you keep crossing these lines what do you think happens? Depending on the direction you are traveling, you will lose or gain a day. If you look at a globe, you can count the lines of latitude. Each one is equal to one hour of our solar day, so there are twenty-four sections. Pretend that it is noon in London. Then, if you travel westward, it will be noon at the place where you cross the next line; as you keep crossing the lines of longitude, in twenty-four hours it would be noon in London again. The strange thing is, it would be a day earlier! That's why they put the International Date Line, where the date actually changes, out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where it won't cause so many problems.