What is the distance around the earth at 33 degrees North latitude?

Answer 1

distance = 2.pi.radius_at_equator.cos33
=33.6x10^3 km

edit: there will be some error as I haven't taken into account the ellipticity of the Earth, but it'll be fairly minor.

Answer 2

33 Degrees North

Answer 3

Generally:

The circumference measured along a latitude circle on a sphere

= (Equatorial Circumference) x Cos(Latitude)


Assuming the Earth has an equatorial diameter of 12756 km (7926 mi):

Circumference = (2 x Pi x Radius) = (Diameter x Pi)


This gives an equatorial circumference of

(Diameter x Pi) = (6378 x 3.14159) = 40074 km (24901 mi)



The circumference of the Earth as measured along latitude 33 degrees would then be:


40074 x Cos(33) = (40074 x 0.83867) = 33609 km (20884 mi)



Ideally, at ± 60 degrees latitude, the circumference would be exactly 1/2 (or 0.5) the equatorial circumference.

These computations are rounded to the nearest whole integer value and assume a perfect sphere.

Answer 4

First find the radius of the circle that is created around 33 degrees north latitude.

Assuming the Earth is a perfect sphere, this can be calculated from cos 33 * the radius of the Earth which is about 6378 km at the equator. This gives a 33 degree radius of about 5349 km. Then calculate the circumfrance of a circle with a radius of 5349 km, which is 2*pi*r, which equals about 33609 km.

A more exact radius can be found using a formula from wikipedia. Using this formula, the Earth's radius at 33 degress north is 6371.769 km. Using cos 33 * r, the radius of a circle at 33 degrees north, we then get 5343.815 km. Using 2*pi*r, this yields 33576.181 km.