Need help with gps coordinates

[JasonK94Z]

I am trying to locate a bridge in Mapsource. The info that I have for the bridge's location is:

Approximate latitude, longitude

+38.50514, -94.94195 (decimal degrees)
38°30'18" N, 94°56'31" W (degrees°minutes'seconds")

When trying to find this in mapsource, I go to View-Got To Position

A box pops up and when i enter either one of these sets of coordinates, I get an error. What am I doing wrong?

[250senuf]

Try these:

N38.50514 W94.94195

or

N38 30 18 W94 56 31.0

In the drop down menu "Edit"> Preferences > Position; the format setting has to match what you're inputting.

[JasonK94Z]

Thank you! The first one worked.

[BootDragger]

Originally Posted by Tacman

3 basic formats for grid coordinates

degrees/decimal degress ie. N35.7856 (apparently what SPOT uses)
degrees/minutes/ decimal minutes ie. N35 12.4876
degrees/minutes/seconds ie. N35 12 45

To convert one to the other just multiply what is after the decimal point by 60. (because there are 60 seconds in one minute and 60 minutes in one degree)

Here we go......

SPOT says N35.5678 To get to minutes multiply .5678 by 60 and you get 34.068. So your coordinates in degrees/minutes/decimal minutes is now N35 34.068

If you now want degrees/minutes/seconds multiply what is after the minutes decimal point by 60. .068 x 60 = 04.08 So now your coordinates in this format are N35 34 04

This works for converting in the opposite way as well by dividing the seconds then the minutes by 60 as well.

This is a great post and would be a shame to lose.

[Jäger]

Originally Posted by DirtyDuane

This is a great post and would be a shame to lose.

You can do it by hand. It is one hell of a lot easier to simply plug the numbers into any of the online coordinate conversion sites on the 'Net, and read the output.

It would help those who insist on long/lat instead of UTM if somehow or other decimal degrees became the de facto standard...