Silly Question - Degrees Minutes Seconds

[katgoddess23]

I'm doing my first multi cache, and by following the clues I get N51°29.205 W000°00.545 as the co ordinates.

 

But which parts are the degrees/minutes/seconds?

 

I need it to put into a map website to find the approximate location..

 

Ta

 

Kat x

[+Renegade Knight]

What you have is this. DD MM.MMM You have degrees and decimal minutes. You want DD MM SS.SSS

 

for DD MM SS.SSS take the decimal part of the minutes and multipy by 60. That will give you decimal seconds to add to your 29 minutes.

 

That's a kludge. Maybe someone else can explain it better.

[bcbarnes]

There are three different formats for Lat/Lon coordinates that I've run into:

 

1) dd.dddddd

2) dd mm.mmmmm

3) dd mm ss.sss

 

The first is decimal degrees, where the coordinate is specified in degress only. The second is degrees/decimal minutes, where the coordinates are specified as degrees and minutes. The third is degrees/minutes/seconds.

 

All you have to remember is that there are 60 minutes in a degree, and 60 seconds in a minute. Therefore, 90.5 degrees is 90 degrees 30 minutes. 90 30.5 is ninety degrees, 30 minutes, 30 seconds, and so on.

 

In your example, you have

 

A) 51 degrees, 29.205 minutes north.

000 degrees, 00.545 minutes west.

 

Simply multiply the ".205" by 60 in part A to get seconds, and the ".545" by 60 in part B to get seconds.

 

A) 51 degrees 29.205 minutes = 51 degrees 29 minutes 12.3 seconds

000 degrees 00.545 minutes = 000 degrees 00 minutes 32.7 seconds

 

Hope this helps.

[+Cooter13]

Very good question. RK has done the math correctly. I myself prefer XX° XX' XX". That is what I use at work, so that is my preference. It all does the same thing.

 

Good Luck!!!

 

See the happy moron

He doesn't give a da**

I wish I were a moron

My God, perhaps I am

Author Unkown

[+Gavotteers]

Hi

You might like to try this web site http://www.mentorsoftwareinc.com/FREEBIE/FREE1198.HTM

they have some good freebie bits

 

Geocachers do it by Degrees

[katgoddess23]

Thanks everyone for your replies, and Gavotteers for the email.

 

I was 99% sure where the location was from the clues, but when i tried to convert it myself I got different locations all over the place.

 

I should have gone with my hunch

[+quakemap]

Some mapping programs allow you to switch between the coordinates presentation. In QuakeMap use Map-->Options menu to select first presentation, make a waypoint by entering coordinates and then select different presentation if you need to see coordinates converted.

 

http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...

[+fizzymagic]

Try this program I wrote that reads and converts coordinates to and from several different formats.

 

GeoCalc

[ChiefPig]

All I do is enter the coordinates/waypoint in my etrex as ddd mm.mmm and then go to setup and change the units to dd mm ss (or whatever you need like dd.ddd). When you view the waypoint again, you will see it in dd mm ss. Your GPSr most likely have the same function if you don't have an etrex.