...and any great circle (unless you really want to split hair and account for Earth curvature (as it is not a sphere))
mdz
calculater for degree/minutes/seconds to digital degrees
- Thread starter tadd5181
- Start date
mdz
@dziedzicmj Whew I am glad you used MDZ to explain your User's Name!
@woodster Pssstttt
The Admiral and I are eating breakfast @ 30° 14'.599N 89° 04'.818W and looking at the Fish Haven 12 "X" on Paper Chart, where 6 buddies Limited out on 12 BIG...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_snapper on the only open day this season.
Located at 30° 03'.478N 88° 29'.624W ≈ 27nM on great circle bearing of 133°M form the Mobile Bay Point Light.
The is ≈ ±~(approximately) where NASA sank ±3 years ago a scrap nozzle from the...\https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(rocket_family)
See picture of the nozzle.
All as part of a Fed/State approved enhancement to FH12.
Ain't GPS Chart plotter fun when combined with old paper (pdf), red pencil X , and Apps?
Happy 4th!
Jim and Sue...
PS: Alt X is ≈ Shift Alt + is ± Shift (key to left of 1 or tilde) ~ for common notation of Approximately , even on a Shift Alt PC
same as Mac.True.
Historically, the nautical mile was defined as 1 minute of latitude (technically, 1/60th) of the distance between two lines of latitude.) The problem is that the earth isn't round. So while the nautical mile is 6080 feet, the surface distance between the poles is something different from 10,800 (180 degrees of latitude x 60 minutes per degree) nautical miles.
In practice, though, "a minute is a mile" is a useful rule of thumb. Just remember to use minutes of latitude, as a minute of longitude is very different at 50 North than it is at the equator.
Note, too that... precision is not always practical. Consider this:
-- a nautical mile is 6080 feet. That's "about" 2000 yards
-- that means that a minute of latitude is "about" 2000 yards
-- that means that .1 minute is "about" 200 yards, and .01 minute is "about" 20 yards.
In "practical" terms, that means that a position of DD MM.mm puts me within a couple of boatlengths of where I am on the planet. I can't think of a situation - in recreational boating - where I'd find utility in knowing my position to within 1/1000th of a minute (2 yards), except perhaps for the intellectual challenge of it.
...especially because most of the artifacts on our charts - even/especially electronic ones - are not rendered with anywhere NEAR that level of precision.
ymmv...