Longitude And Latitude

lastmod 2019-11-29created 2014-07-109 edits

A collective term for longitude and latitude. They are coordinates used to indicate the position of a point on the Earth's surface. Longitude and latitude were established at the International Meridian Conference of 1884, which agreed that the line passing through the center of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in England would be the world's common prime meridian, i.e. longitude 0°. Latitude divides the range from the Earth's equator to the South and North Poles into 90° each; latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere are called north latitude, and those in the Southern Hemisphere south latitude. Longitude is calculated by dividing east and west of the Greenwich observatory into 180° each; east of the Greenwich observatory is called east longitude, and west is called west longitude.

Introduction

Units

They are expressed in angular units, using degrees (Degrees), minutes (Minute), and seconds (seconds). The units are related by the formulas below.

• 1 degree (Degrees) = 60 minutes (Minute)
• 1 minute (Minute) = 60 seconds (seconds)

Conversion

• Degrees2DMS

D = (int) (degrees);
M = (int) ((degrees - D) * 60);
S = (((degrees - D) * 60) - M) * 60;

• DMS2Degrees

degrees = D + (M / 60) + (S / 3600);

• DMS conversion Excel file: Dms_converter.zip ¹
• DMS conversion JavaScript: Shobunsha_Mesh_code_calculator.zip ²

Distance of longitude and latitude coordinates

Longitude and latitude coordinates get wider toward the equator and narrower toward the poles. Approximate distances of longitude and latitude in Korea are as follows.

See also

• Geographic Coordinate Systems
• GIS
• Azimuth

Favorite site

• Wikipedia (en) Description of Longitude
• Wikipedia (en) Description of Latitude
• Tajo's Engineer House :: Converting latitude/longitude between degrees, degrees-minutes, and degrees-minutes-seconds

References