+Andy and Robin Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 Can someone please explain the coords. a little, how they translate into distance for example? Thanks Quote Link to comment
ghOzt Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 Well, for latitude, it’s fairly simple. 1 degree equals… what is it, 70 miles? So 70 miles times 5280 feet per mile equals 369,600 feet. Divide this number by 60, and you have 6160 feet per minute of latidude, and divide again by 60 to get about 103 feet (approximately) for every second of latitude. Longitude is much trickier. The distance between degrees of longitude depends on where on the globe you are located. The number of feet in each second of longitude is largest at the equator and gets smaller as you move towards the poles. I hope this helps, and I hope I did all of the math right! Quote Link to comment
ghOzt Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 I just did a little detective work and found by looking at your profile page that you most likely live near San Francisco. At 38 degrees latitude (not latiDude, as in my first post), 1 degree of longitude equals about 55 miles. Doing the math, 1 minute of longitude equals 4840 feet and 1 second of longitude equals about 81 feet. So, to sum it all up (you’ll be quizzed later), as you travel North or South, there are about 100 feet between seconds of latitude and as you travel East or West, there are about 80 feet between seconds of longitude. Oh, by the way, if you are using the tenths/hundredths/thousandths of a minute format instead of seconds (for geocaching, you probably are), each thousandth of a minute of latitude equals about 6.16 feet and each thousandth of a minute of longitude equals about 4.84 feet. (You probably could have figured that out on your own, though!) I’m going to take a nap, now. Quote Link to comment
+Prime Suspect Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 Well, for latitude, it’s fairly simple. 1 degree equals… what is it, 70 miles? It's 60 nautical miles, which is about 69 statute miles, or 111120 meters (or 1.1745644e-11 light years ). Quote Link to comment
ghOzt Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 ...about 69 statute miles... I need to stress that ALL my numbers are approximations. If you need anything exact, my numbers aren't it. Quote Link to comment
Tahosa and Sons Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 Forget Lat and Long - go to the UTM system if you want to measure distance. A meter is close enough, and then let your Cache nose go to work. Quote Link to comment
dsandbro Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 To determine the longitudinal distance at any latitude multiply the one nautical miles/degree with the cosine of the latitude. Try this with the extreme northernmost and southernmost latitudes of your local geocaching area and you will see there is not a lot of change. If you geocache while traveling long distances then there may be a large difference, but not if you are in your home area. So just memorize the values for your local area. Quote Link to comment
jimburns Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 Check out Geo Convert for a tool to explore these distances, play with adjustments, convert from all formats, inc. UTM in one go, and more.... feedback appreciated, thanks. Quote Link to comment
+fivegallon Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 (edited) The practical way: Go outside Let the GPS settle "mark" a wpt where you're standing "mark" another wpt and edit it by 1 degree(or 2,or 3,for more accuracy) set the edited wpt as a "goto" the GPS will tell you just how far away it is You may want to do it twice(once for n/s,once for e/w) Edited January 26, 2004 by fivegallon Quote Link to comment
+Stunod Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 Check out Markwell's Geocaching FAQ. He has a nice chart showing the distance (in feet) in 0.001 degrees. Here is the link. Quote Link to comment
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