Raudel Solis Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 Degrees Minutes Seconds "ive always found this complicated although i know its quite simple and i know my Ti-84 plus silver Edition can do this. can anyone help me out and explain the concept of DMS? ? Quote
Jack_O'neill Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 I'm not sure exactly what you are asking... very basically, a circle can be divided into 360 equal parts called degrees. Each degree is divided into 60 equal parts or minutes. Each minute is divided into 60 equal parts called seconds. Is that what you wanted to know? Quote
Raudel Solis Posted March 23, 2011 Author Posted March 23, 2011 so is it like saying 80.56 degrees?? im still confused Quote
Jack_O'neill Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 so is it like saying 80.56 degrees?? im still confused No...80.56 degrees would be where you take a degree and slice it up 100 equal divisions, then use 56 of those divisions. Degrees, minutes and seconds are notated with the degree symbol (° created by holding the alt key down and hitting 248) following the first number, the apostrophe (') following the second number indicating minutes and the quotation mark (") following the third number for seconds. To use your example, 80.56° is 80 degrees and slightly more than half of another degree. To understand this, look back at basic math. In a number with a decimal point, .5 is half of a unit...doesn't matter what that unit is. $0.50 is half of a dollar. Half of a minute or .5 minute is as we know 30 seconds, whether we are talking time or geometric measurment. Doesn't matter what the unit is, 0.5 is half of it. Since we already know that 30 minutes is half of a degree, we can say that 80.56 degrees is approximately 80 and a half degrees, or 80° 30'. The actual number would be 80° 33' 36" ( 80 degrees, 33 minutes, 36 seconds). A good explanation of how to convert from decimal degrees to DMS can be found here: http://www.mass.gov/mgis/llcoord.htm Quote
BIGAL Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 Also change your "units" to Deg min sec rather than decimal degrees and it will display in true brg's also direction set to your 0 angle here in Aus its North, USA east ? Quote
Raudel Solis Posted March 23, 2011 Author Posted March 23, 2011 thanks for simplifying this for me Quote
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