[pct-l] GPS coordinates: Google Earth vs Google Maps

[Denis Stanton]

Hi Ron

This is very basic, so apologies if I'm stating the obvious.  On the other hand if it's not obvious this may help

32◦ 56’ 49.26” N should be read as 32 degrees, 56 minutes 49.36 seconds. Just like stating the time, where you commonly give hours, minutes and seconds.  

The little ' mark denotes minutes as in 'minute parts of an hour'.  The " indicates 'second minute', and means minute parts of a minute part.  Nobody says 'second minute' any more, but that where is comes from.

32◦ 56’ 49.26” N is a pain to type so it commonly gets converted in a single number like 32.5437 degrees.  This is like converting 5:30 AM to 5.5 hours

Degrees North and East are counted as positive.  Degrees measured South of West count as negative so 116◦29’38.61” W. is approximately -116.48  
That  is 116 + 39/60 + 38.61/3600

DENIS STANTON
denisstanton at mac.com


On 3/05/2013, at 1:58 PM, Ron Graybill <rgraybill44 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Anyone have a good source to explain--to a novice--the different ways of
> stating GPS coordinates?
>