Degrees, Seconds, Minutes, Rads

This week in class the lessons that we learned about had to do with converting degrees to minutes and then to seconds. We also learned how to convert to radians.

Degrees can be broken down into minutes (') and seconds (“)

1. a. To convert to minutes, you have to take what is behind the decimal and * by 60.

Ex.1 Convert 19.43 to degrees in min.

a. .43(60) = 25.8'

Ex. 2 Convert 5.78 to degrees in min.

b. .78(60) = 46.8'

2. To convert to seconds, you take what is behind the decimal in the minutes and multiply it also by 60.

Ex.1 Convert min. to sec.

a. .8(60) = 48”

b. To convert minutes and seconds to degrees:

Formula = degrees + min/sec. (+) sec./3600 = ANSWER

Ex.1 Convert 40 degrees, 14 minutes, 20 seconds to degrees

40 (+) 14/60 (+) 20/3600 = 40.238

2. Radians are the preferred way to measure angles. All formulas require radians.

a. To convert degrees to radians (type in degrees/180 in calculator and convert to a fraction, put the (') symbol behind it).

Ex.1 Convert 112 degrees Radians

112 degrees X (Pi/180) =28/45 Pi

b. To convert from radians to degrees:

RadsX 180/PIE = degrees

(the PI'S cancel out.)

Ex.1 Convert 3Pi/10 to degrees

3/10 Pi X180/Pi = 3/10 * 180 (Pi's cancel) = 54 degrees