Exploring the United States
Lesson 1: Where is the United States?
 Vocabulary
 hemisphere– halves of the earth
 equator – imaginary line that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern
hemispheres
 prime meridian – imaginary line that divides Earth into the Western and Eatern
hemispheres
 continent – largest areas of land on Earth
 relative location – where a place is in relation to other places on Earth
 border – a line that shows the end of a place
 gulf – part of an ocean or sea that reaches into land
 absolute location – exact location of a place
 lines of longitude – run east and west across a map or globe
 lines of latitude – run north and south across a map or globe
 Global Address
 One way to describe a place’s location is to give its global address, or where it is
on Earth
 Which Hemisphere?
o one way to give a global address is to use hemispheres
o equator lies halfway between the North and South Pole
o everything above the equator is the Northern hemisphere and everything
below is in the Southern hemisphere
o prime meridian divides Earth into Eastern and Western hemispheres
o United States in west of the prime meridian so it is in the Western
hemisphere
 Which Continent?
o Another way to give a global address is to name the continent
o United States part of the continent of North America
 Relative Location
 another way to describe location of a place
 between two countries
o example: Most of the U.S. is south of Canada and North of Mexico
 between two oceans
o example: the U.S. lies between two of the world’s oceans’ the Pacific
ocean forms the countries western border and the Atlantic Ocean is its
eastern border
 Absolute location
 lines of longitude and latitude cross over each other to form a grid over a map or
globe
 to describe absolute location name the lines of latitude and longitude
 Lines of latitude
o equator is a line of latitude marked 0°
o all others lines are measured in degrees north or south of the equator
 Lines of longitude
o The prime meridian is a line of longitude marked 0°
o all other lines are measured in degrees east or west of the prime
meridian