Final answer:
The latitudinal difference between 90° East and 90° West is 180°. For 150° East and 100° West, the difference is 250°, but since the maximum cannot exceed 180°, the shortest latitudinal difference is 70°.
Step-by-step explanation:
The latitudinal difference between two points of longitude on the Earth is calculated by finding the absolute difference between their longitudinal coordinates. Since longitude values range from 0° to 180° east and 0° to 180° west (with both 180° lines being the same), we need to consider the direction when calculating the difference.
For the first part, the latitudinal difference between 90° East and 90° West is straightforward as they are on opposite sides of the Earth. So, we calculate the difference by adding the absolute values of the coordinates: |90° East| + |90° West| = 90 + 90 = 180°.
For the second part, the latitudinal difference between 150° East and 100° West requires a similar approach. Again, we add the absolute values of the coordinates: |150° East| + |100° West| = 150 + 100 = 250°. However, since the maximum difference cannot exceed 180° (which represents half of the Earth's circumference), we subtract 180° from 250° to obtain the shortest route around the globe which is 70°.
So, the shortest latitudinal difference between 150° East and 100° West is 70°.