Jennifer Price, age 10, of Blythewood, South Carolina for her question:

How far are the latitudes apart?

The man made lines of latitude run parallel with the equator from pole to pole. Since the earth is not a perfect sphere, there are slight, very slight, variations between the globe girdling parallels. But the distances between the lines of latitude are uniform enough for us to use them as rough guides for figuring north and south distances on a map.

From the equator to each of the poles there are 90 degrees of latitude, making 180 circles of latitude: The average distance between them is a little less than 70 miles. A place located on latitude 10 degrees north is roughly 700 miles north of the equator.