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Decimal degrees (DD) is a notation for expressing latitude and longitude geographic coordinates as decimal fractions of a degree. DD are used in many geographic information systems (GIS), web mapping applications such as OpenStreetMap, and GPS devices. Decimal degrees are an alternative to using degrees-minutes-seconds notation. As with ...
The numerical values for latitude and longitude can occur in a number of different units or formats: [2] sexagesimal degree: degrees, minutes, and seconds : 40° 26′ 46″ N 79° 58′ 56″ W; degrees and decimal minutes: 40° 26.767′ N 79° 58.933′ W; decimal degrees: +40.446 -79.982; There are 60 minutes in a degree and 60 seconds in a ...
Finding the geodesic between two points on the Earth, the so-called inverse geodetic problem, was the focus of many mathematicians and geodesists over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries with major contributions by Clairaut, [5] Legendre, [6] Bessel, [7] and Helmert English translation of Astron. Nachr. 4, 241–254 (1825).
Each degree of longitude is sub-divided into 60 minutes, each of which is divided into 60 seconds. A longitude is thus specified in sexagesimal notation as, for example, 23° 27′ 30″ E. For higher precision, the seconds are specified with a decimal fraction. An alternative representation uses degrees and minutes, and parts of a minute are ...
Input degrees can be signed in which case the hemisphere is not required. A negative value implies a value in the western or southern hemisphere. Minutes and seconds need not be specified. If no degrees are specified then a value of zero is assumed. This template does not attempt to trap invalid values and results in this case might be undefined.
However, when it is inconvenient to use base-60 for minutes and seconds, positions are frequently expressed as decimal fractional degrees to an equal amount of precision. Degrees given to three decimal places ( 1 / 1000 of a degree) have about 1 / 4 the precision of degrees-minutes-seconds ( 1 / 3600 of a degree) and ...
Latitude and longitude should be displayed by sexagesimal fractions (i.e. minutes and seconds). When minutes and seconds are less than ten, leading zeroes should be shown. Degree, minutes and seconds should be followed by the symbols ° ( U+00B0 ), ′ ( U+2032 ), and ″ ( U+2033 ), without spaces between the number and symbol.
The magnitude of such precision (152 decimal places) can be put into context by the fact that the circumference of the largest known object, the observable universe, can be calculated from its diameter (93 billion light-years) to a precision of less than one Planck length (at 1.6162 × 10 −35 meters, the shortest unit of length expected to be ...