Distance

[Duckman1]

Can anyone tell me what distance it is when the last 3 no's of lat. and long.(seconds) roll over? :dizzy:

Example: last 3 no's go from .001' to .999' then the minutes change

Is this a mile?

Thanks for any help!

[Duckman1]

Anyone ? :confused:

[cbearw]

Duckman: How far a minite is would depend on the scale of the topo map your using. Your gps unit should give you the distance between your location and where ever you set your curser or between any two waypoints. I do know there is 60 minites in a degree and 60 seconds in a minite. I guess when your unit is set to degrees and minites the minites are broken down to three decimal places for some reason. Hope this helps a bit:) ..........Tom

[DANIEL MARK ZAPOLSKI]

you have three choices that i know of in any given gps unit
1. miles
2. kilometers
3. nautical miles
hence it is allways wise to look up what units you are using. in the manual of setting up your gps. some units go right to dms units which are metric, due to the fact that the ******eye*******in the sky uses the metric system. go to set-up mode and look it up. if you're on the water and you give your long. lat. in miles and they are in metric and you're lost ------------- you may stay lost a lot longer!
oh yes 60 minutes = 60 miles ie 45th parallel versus 44th parallel

[Duckman1]

Thanks guys!

[icemancometh]

...

[hitechman]

you have three choices that i know of in any given gps unit
1. miles
2. kilometers
3. nautical miles
hence it is allways wise to look up what units you are using. in the manual of setting up your gps. some units go right to dms units which are metric, due to the fact that the ******eye*******in the sky uses the metric system. go to set-up mode and look it up. if you're on the water and you give your long. lat. in miles and they are in metric and you're lost ------------- you may stay lost a lot longer!
oh yes 60 minutes = 60 miles ie 45th parallel versus 44th parallel


Euclidean geometry--long before the metric system. Based on a circle being 360 degrees, each degree having 60 smaller divisions (minutes = "), and each minute having 60 smaller divisions (seconds = '). Similar on a clock--60 seconds are a minute and 60 minutes are an hour, but 12 (actually 24) hours represents one 360 degree rotation of the earth and one rotation of the hour hand. Any point on the earth moves through 360 degrees in a day, or 15 degrees per hour


Parallels of latitude are all small circles, except for the equator. They are true east-west lines and always parallel -- Any two are always equal distances apart--but not = to the distance between 2 different ones. Therefore each degree of latitude represents 1/180th of the distance from the soth pole to the north pole--1 minute of latitude would be = to 1/60 of that of a degree, and 1 second of latitude would be equal to 1/360th of the value for 1 degree.

Authalic Latitude is based on a spherical earth: Measures the position of a point on the earth's surface in terms of the angular distance between the equator and the poles--does not affect longitude.

Geodetic Latitude is based on an ellipsoidal earth: The ellipsoid is a more accurate representation of the earth than a sphere since it accounts for polar flattening--does not affect longitude.

Meridians of longitude are halves of great circles, connecting one pole to the other and they all run in a true north-south direction. Unlike latitude lines, they are spaced farthest apart at the equator and converge to a point at the poles. Thus the distance between them at the north or south pole would be 0 miles.

The distance represented by a degree of longitude varies upon where it is measured. The length of a degree of longitude along a meridian is not constant because of polar flattening. At the equator, the approximate length is determined by dividing the earth's circumference (24,900 miles) by 360 degrees: 111.05 kilometers (69 miles). A nautical mile was defined as the distance of 1 MINUTE of longitude as measured on the equator (or 69/60 = 1.15 statute miles----FYI, a knot is 1 nautical mile per hour which translates to 1.15 miles (statute) per hour as most of us use it. At 60degrees (notice more the the 45 degree halfway point) N latitude, one degree of longitude is equal to about 55.52 kilometers (34.5 miles), or 1/2 that at the equator.

Longitude and Distance--Because the earth is not a perfect sphere, the equatorial circumfererence does not equal that of the meridians. On a perfect sphere, each meridian of longitude equals one-half the circumference of the sphere. The length of each degree is equal to the circumference divided by 360. Each degree is equal to every other degree. Measurement along meridians of longitude accounts for the earth's polar flattening. Degree lengths along meridians are not constant: 111.325 kilometers (69.172 miles) per degree at the equator, 16.85 kilometers (10.47 miles) per degree at 80 degrees North, and 0 kilometers at the poles.

:dizzy: Had enough?:dizzy:

There is no easy way to figure this out with math. I can provide you with the formulas if you want them, but sufice it to say the distances (lengths of 1 degree) change logarithmicly depending where you are on the earth's surface.

All of those formulas are incorporated in to your GPS operating system, and I just let mine do the figuring. As suggested in the other posts, I'd just use my GPS to measure those distances.

Steve