Do Latitude and longitudinal lines change with the earths wobble?

Factual Questions
1

We already know the earth wobbles. But do we know if latitudinal and/or longitudinal lines change with the wobble?

2

No. Zero degrees goes through the “Center of the instrument at Greenwich.” As long as that stays in one place so do the lines.

3

[QUOTE=Phlosphr]
We already know the earth wobbles. But do we know if latitudinal and/or longitudinal lines change with the wobble?
[/QUOTE]

It would be huge problem for GPS systems, if they did.

Ed

4

[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi]
No. Zero degrees goes through the “Center of the instrument at Greenwich.” As long as that stays in one place so do the lines.
[/QUOTE]

Not quite. The north pole also needs to be fixed to one specific point on the Earth’s surface, or else the Greenwich meridian would start in a different spot.

Thus, to compensate for the Chandler Wobble, apparently a specific North Pole has been defined in order to keep everything from shifting by a few meters over the course of months - the geographic north pole isn’t reliable enough. :slight_smile:

5

Ok so we compensate for the wobble by fixing a geographic north pole that does shift…on occasion. I wasn’t really talking about the long/lat lines shifting by miles, to really effect GPS systems…but they do shift by meters here and there no?