You can also just use a calculator

You would need a paper and pen too, and it won't be super speedy as a poota converter will be!



60 minutes in a degree, 60 seconds in a minute. So 3600 seconds in a degree.


So N032-40-15.60

(32 degrees 40 minutes 15.60 seconds, but dashes between is simple to write and obvious what it is to you at least! You could put colons in rather than dashes, but then that might become a decimal point writing freehand with a dodgy pen perhaps?)


is 32 plus (40/60) plus (15.60/3600) equals N032.67100 decimal degrees.

Back the other way;

W003.25708

0.25708 times 60 gives 15 whole minutes, and 0.4248 of a one.

0.4248 times 60 gives 25.49 seconds

W 003-15-25.49

Feel free to ignore that lot!


According to my Garmin at least, you should use;

Decimal degrees with 5 decimal places ddd.ddddd

Degrees and decimal minutes to 3 decimal places ddd-mm.mmm

Degrees, minutes, seconds and decimal seconds to 1 decimal place ddd-mm-ss.s

I can't find anything to say this is a standard convention, but if you stuck to Garmin speak then how many numbers you've written down or found may give you an idea of the format or wether there are numbers missing. Or as with me recently, in the entirely wrong bit of Barcelona because the Garmin wanted one format, the guidebook had another and we'd ignored the one missing number and just thrown another zero on the end so it fitted!