Doing GPS Conversion – Degrees to Latitude Longitude and vice versa

Converting Degrees to Latitude Longitude

INDIA is North East (NE)

  1. The whole units of degrees will remain the same (i.e. in 121.135° longitude, start with 121°).
  2. Multiply the decimal by 60 (i.e. .135 * 60 = 8.1).
  3. The whole number becomes the minutes (8′).
  4. Take the remaining decimal and multiply by 60. (i.e. .1 * 60 = 6).
  5. The resulting number becomes the seconds (6″). Seconds can remain as a decimal.
  6. Take your three sets of numbers and put them together, using the symbols for degrees (°), minutes (‘), and seconds (“) (i.e. 121°8’6” longitude)

You can do it fast by visiting http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html

Convert Degree, Minutes, Seconds to Latitude and Longitude

  1. latitude and longitude in a decimal format: 42.1361
  2. latitude and longitude in degree, minute, second format: 42deg, 08min, 10sec
  3. To convert coordinates from degrees, minutes, seconds format to decimal format, use this easy formula:
  4. degrees + (minutes/60) + (seconds/3600)

    The example coordinate above would be calculated as:
    
    42 + (8/60) + (10/3600) = 42.1361
    or
    42 + (.1333) + (.0028 ) = 42.1361

10 thoughts on “Doing GPS Conversion – Degrees to Latitude Longitude and vice versa

  1. Got some lat/long reading – N3349.22,W9646.15 (they are on a lake but take me high and dry). How do I convert? dividing by 100 does not work

    • Hey Mike,

      Had you sort out lat and lng problem? are you find out the real lat/lng from the above format.

      Please help me , I’ve same problem too

  2. Hi,

    I got this readings from a GPS Etrex Vista GARMIN, 05 19.014’S and 151 01.520’E. The reading are given in deg and min. What formula do I use to convert to deg, mins and sec?

    Regards
    Clezy

    • Hey Clezy – not sure about that. I just entered 05 19.014′S,151 01.520′E in http://maps.google.com and it showed some place in Papua New Guinea, and the approximate latitude and longitude values were -5.316835,151.025327 = -5° 19′ 0.606″ and 151° 1′ 31.1772″ – if that helps in some way.

    • Your GPS show “degrees minuets point decimal-minuets South”, to take the parallel part of above, you are almost there, if you want the seconds as well; multiply the minutes part that are AFTER the decimal-point with 60 e.g. 05 19.014′S => 0.014 * 60 = 0″ (” = seconds) the number is too small to justify a single second being 0.84″ and we normally discard everything after the point resulting in 0″

      Now my question to you. Why would you start messing with perfection, your GPS is in fact giving the correct information with 5° 19′.014 S (5 degrees 19 minutes point 014 South) on to days charts/maps we do NOT use seconds any more but decimal minutes, if you are to plot the result on a nautical chart or a land card/map you will have a hard time plotting anything above the second digit after the decimal point!
      GPS read out starting with – (minus) is referring to South or West first set of numbers being Latitude of parallel and Longitude of meridian the second set of numbers, the meridian degrees are giving in 3 digits, even when the degree is less than 10, e.g. 007° 59′.95 S => the degree stay the same, South gives a negative sign in front of the degrees, that leave the (59.95 / 60) equals -007.9931666666666666666666666666666 => -007.99317 rounded number and we are back to GPS layout

  3. Hi,

    Is there any way we can export the latitude and longitude between 2 cities from a map to any file?

    I need to add all the lat long between 2 cities and verify that we are geting the valid trace route in our application.

    If you have any solution, could you please let me know?

    Regards,
    Gajendra

  4. Parsing and converting output from a GPS Dongle – Ask python questions

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