coordinate format?

[+RPaske]

Ran across a cache in which the following coordinates have to be converted: 43 0032 and 88 1357. So what format are these coordinates in and what do they have to be converted to>

[Kerry.]

Format? good question and really the only person who "really" knows is the person who actually wrote them like this.

 

I suppose that's what a format requires, some formatting, an appropriate decimal point as required, if they're decimal minutes then the appropriate minutes sign ('), seconds then why not a seconds symbol (").

 

Got me buggered why people write so called position formats like that, what do they think people are, mind readers .

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+Alan2]

They look like decimal to me. In effect 43.0032 and 88.1357 Nothing else would make sense as there would be another space in each set.

 

ALan

[+pizzachef]

Well, it is a little obscure, but the most obvious guess would be decimal degrees or DD.DDDDD

just multiply the decimal portion by 60 (so if you have 90.874, multiply .874[degrees] by 60[minutes per degree] to get 52.440 minutes) and you'll have something that looks like this:

DD MM.MMM

degrees and decimal minutes. that's what geocaching.com uses

good luck with that

 

-pizzachef

[Kerry.]

Well people, that's about all you can do with those, is guess. Frankly I wouldn't take a guess, might give someone a bum steer.

 

Also presumeably (and that's a guess also) they would be North lat and West Long?

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+blindleader]

quote:

---

So what format are these coordinates in and what do they have to be converted to

---

Well it sort of looks like a newbie question but RPaske ain't no newbie geocacher, so it's got me intrigued.

 

Why don't you post a link to the cache page so we can take a gander.

[+RPaske]

Thanks, Pizzachef, right on target. btw, here is link to geocache. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=c1dc4600-de90-47bb-b96a-5f3e0fb43682

[+pizzachef]

Well, now that I've looked at the website, it looks like the coordinates in question were obtained using the clues? If so, then I think they are already in degrees/decimal minutes or DD MM.MMM

If your gps is set to this already, and it probably is since this is the format that geocaching.com uses, then you don't need to convert anything. Hope you figure this out before you're chasing wild geese

 

-pizzachef

[+Prime Suspect]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kerry:

 

Also presumeably (and that's a guess also) they would be North lat and West Long?

---

Well, a positive number for Longitude (when using signs rather than E/W) indicates East, but if you're expecting this to be somewhere in North America, you can assume it to be West.

 

N43° 00.192 W088° 08.142

 

"Don't mess with a geocacher. We know all the best places to hide a body."

[+RPaske]

The map coordinates (43 00 32 & 88 13 57) are written in a different format (hours minutes seconds). In geocaching we usually use hours, minutes and decimal minutes. To convert you divide the seconds by 60 and add it to the minutes.