Guide for Converting Latitude/Longitude Coordinates
Fractions of degrees are broken down into minutes and seconds. Each minute represents 1/60th of a degree and each second represents 1/60th of a minute (or 1/3600th of a degree).
Below are the steps of converting from an angle in degrees-minutes-seconds to decimal degrees and back to degrees-minutes-seconds.
Example 1: Converting Latitude/Longitude Coordinates
D = Degrees
M = Minutes
S = Seconds
.m = Decimal Minutes
.s = Decimal Seconds
DM.m = Degrees, Minutes, Decimal Minutes (eg. 45°22.6333)
D.d = Degrees, Decimal Degrees (eg. 45.3772°)
DMS = Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (eg. 45°22'38")
- DMS --> DM.m (45°22'38" --> 45°22.6333)
- Divide S by 60 to get .m (38/60=.6333)
- Add .m to M to get M.m (22+.6333=22.6333)
- Divide M.m by 60 to get .d (22.6333/60=.3772)
- Add .d to D to get D.d (45+.3772=45.3772)
- D.d --> DM.m (45.3772 --> 45°22.6333
- Multiply .d by 60 to get M.m (.3772*60=22.6333)
- DM.m --> DMS (45°22.6333 --> 45°22'38")
- Multiply .m by 60 to get S(.6333*60=38)
Example 2: Converting Degrees, Minutes, Seconds to Decimal Format
To convert coordinates from degrees, minutes, seconds format to
decimal format, use this easy formula:
degrees + (minutes/60) + (seconds/3600)
For example, to convert 42deg, 08min, 10sec into decimal format:
42
+ (8/60) + (10/3600) = 42.1361