East or West? North or South? Quiz | Maps

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which of the following cities is the most to the north?

Answer: Rome

The latitude of Rome is around 41 degrees 50 minutes N. The latitude of New York City is around 40 degrees 40 minutes N, the latitude of Bejing is 39 degrees and 55 minutes N, and the latitude of Istanbul is 41 degrees N. But of all of these cities, still the northernmost, Rome has the warmest climate!

2. You are relaxing in a boat in Venice, Italy, listening to the barcarole music. Are you more to the south then Sapporo, Japan, where winter Olympics were held back in 1972?

Answer: No

Venice has the latitude of 45 degrees 23 minutes N, while Sapporo has latitude of around 43 degrees N. The reason why more southerly Sapporo has a colder climate then Venice are the cold subarctic Oyashio and Liman ocean currents, as well as the proximity of huge Siberian plate, which gets very cold during winters.

3. Which of the following cities is most to the west?

Answer: New York

The longitude of Santiago de Chile is 70 degrees 37 minutes W, the longitude of La Paz is 68 degrees and 8 minutes W, the longitude of Caracas is 66 degrees and 55 minutes W, while the longitude of New York City is around 74 degrees W.

4. Which of the following cities is closest to the Equator?

Answer: Cape Town

The latitude of Melbourne is 37 degrees 48 minutes S, the latitude of Buenos Aires is 34 degrees 37 minutes S, the latitude of Wellington is 41 degrees 17 minutes S, while the latitude of Cape Town is 33 degrees 55 minutes S.

5. On the same date in summer, which of the following cities will the morning sun reach first?

Answer: Stockholm

Stockholm has longitude of 18 degrees, 23 minutes E, Vienna has longitude of 16 degrees, 22 minutes E, Kinshasa has longitude of 15 degrees, 20 minutes E, and Tripoli has longitude of 13 degrees, 1 minutes E.

6. On the 31st of December, you came on business trip to Attu Island, the westernmost Aleutian island belonging to the USA (173 degrees E). In the same time, your wife went to enyoy herself on the tropical heaven of the Tonga island, which lies well to the East from the Attu (175 degrees W). Will she celebrate the New Year before you?

Answer: Yes

Although the Attu island is in the Eastern Hemisphere (the half of the Earth that is east of the Prime Meridian and west of 180 degrees longitude), and Tonga island is in the Western Hemisphere (i.e. Tonga is to the East from Attu), the International Date Line, that generally runs roughly following the 180 degrees longitude, deviates so as to include Aleutian Islands into the westernmost US Time Zone.

The Tonga time is thus UTC+13 (UTC - Coordinated Universal Time), while Attu time is UTC-10. So the New Year will come to your wife 13+10=23 hours earlier.

7. If you would have to choose the best place for launching satellites into geostationary orbit, which of the following cities would you select as the best located for that purpose?

Answer: Quito

The best in this regard is the closeset to the Equator. Quito lies at latitude 0 degrees 11 minutes S, some 11 miles south from the Equator, Libreville (Gabon) lies at 0 degrees and 24 minutes N, Cayenne (French Guiana) at 4 degrees 55 minutes N, while Kampala lies at latitude 0 degrees 19 minutes N.

By the way, European sattelites are actually often launched from the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou in French Guiana.

8. You are going to the Christmass vacation, and you are traveling from the cold winter Toronto City Airport to walk down the elegant Quai des Etats-Unis in Nice, located on France's beautiful Cote d'Azur coast. Are you heading south?

Answer: No

No, you are heading somewhat to the north, because Nice' coast is at the latitude of 43 degrees 41 minutes N, while Toronto's City Airport is at 43 degrees 39 minutes N, i.e. around two nautical miles to the south. The reason for the climatic difference on the same parallel is again the tempering influence of warm Mediterranean and the Gulf current on one side, and the openness to the Arctic on other the side.

9. Which of the following islands is the most to the west?

Answer: Puerto Rico

The westernmost part of the Prince Edward Island, Canada, is roughly around 64 degrees and 20 minutes W, the westernnmost of the Falkland Islands, on the Beaver Island, is around 61 deg 20' W. Martinique is at around 61 degrees W, while the easternmost part of Puerto Rico is at 65 degrees and 36 minutes West.

10. Which of the following huge river deltas is easternmost?

Answer: Volga

The mouth of Danube lies at around 29 degrees and 40 minutes E, the mouth of Nile lies at around 31 degrees E, the mouth of Zambezi lies at around 36 degrees and 28 minutes E, and the mouth of Volga lies at around 48 degrees E.

Source: Author St Sava Jr.

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor spanishliz before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

East or West? North or South? Trivia Quiz

I'll name two or four well known geographic locations with the similar latitude or longitude. You have to answer which one of the choices is the most to the north or south, or the most to the east or west. Have fun!

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