Definition:Meridian (Terrestrial)/Principal
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Definition
The principal meridian is the meridian of Earth which passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, Greater London, England, which is used as the internationally-recognised $0 \degrees$ reference longitude meridian.
Also known as
The principal meridian is also known as:
- the prime meridian
- the standard meridian
- the Greenwich meridian.
Linguistic Note
The place name Greenwich, in the context of the Greenwich meridian, is pronounced something like Gren-itch or Gren-idge.
Sources
- 1933: D.M.Y. Sommerville: Analytical Conics (3rd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text I$. Coordinates: $2$. Coordinates
- 1976: W.M. Smart: Textbook on Spherical Astronomy (6th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text I$. Spherical Trigonometry: $4$. Terrestrial latitude and longitude.
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): meridian: 1.
- 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): prime meridian