Note on GPS coordinate

GPS Coordinates.
Decimal degrees (DD) express latitude and longitude geographic coordinates as decimal
fractions and are used in manygeographic information systems (GIS), web mapping applications
such as OpenStreetMap, and GPS devices. Decimal degrees are an alternative to using
degrees, minutes, and seconds (DMS). As with latitude and longitude, the values are bounded by
90 and 180 respectively.
Positive latitudes are north of the equator, negative latitudes are south of the equator. Positive
longitudes are east of Prime Meridian, negative longitudes are west of the Prime Meridian.
Latitude and longitude are usually expressed in that sequence, latitude before longitude.

The decimal differences.

The radius of the semi-major axis of the Earth at the equator is 6,378,137.0 meters[1] resulting in
a circumference of 40,075,161.2 meters. The equator is divided into 360 degrees of longitude, so
each degree at the equator represents 111,319.9 meters or approximately 111.32 km. As one
moves away from the equator towards a pole, however, one degree of longitude is multiplied by
the cosine of the latitude, decreasing the distance, approaching zero at the pole. The number of
decimal places required for a particular precision at the equator is:
Degree precision versus length

decima
l
places

decimal
degrees

DMS

qualitative

N/S or

scale that

E/W

E/W at

E/W at

E/W at

can be

at

23N/S

45N/S

67N/S

identified

equator

country or

111.32 k

102.47 k

78.71 k

43.496 k

large region

large city or

11.132 k

10.247 k

7.871 k

4.3496 k

district

0 00

town or

1.1132 k

1.0247 k

36

village

787.1 m

434.96 m

1.0

1 00 0

0.1

0 06 0

0.01

0.001

0.0001

0.00001

0.000001

0 00

neighborhoo

3.6

d, street

0 00
0.36

111.32 m

102.47 m

78.71 m

43.496 m

11.132 m

10.247 m

7.871 m

4.3496 m

1.1132 m

1.0247 m

787.1

434.96

mm

mm

individual
street, land
parcel

0 00

individual

0.036

trees

0 00

individual

111.32 m

102.47 m

78.71 m

43.496 m

0.0036

humans

practical limit
7

0.0000001

0 00

of

11.132 m

10.247 m

7.871 m

4.3496 m

0.00036

commercial

1.1132 m

1.0247 m

787.1

434.96

surveying

specialized
8

0.0000000
1

0 00

surveying

0.000036 (e.g. tectonic

plate mappin
g)

A value in decimal degrees to a precision of 4 decimal places is precise to 11.132 meters at

the equator. A value in decimal degrees to 5 decimal places is precise to 1.1132 meter at the
equator. Elevation also introduces a small error. At 6,378 m elevation, the radius and surface
distance is increased by 0.001 or 0.1%. Because the earth is not flat, the precision of the
longitude part of the coordinates increases the further from the equator you get. The precision of
the latitude part does not increase so much, more strictly however, a meridian arc length per 1
second depends on latitude at point concerned. The discrepancy of 1 second meridian arc length
between equator and pole is about 0.3 metres because the earth is an oblate spheroid.