I have a question concerning British scientific notation, in relation to longitude and latitude coordinates. And, in particular, the interpunct. Take, for instance, the following:



Should the first notation be read as "41 degress, 27 minutes North by 8 degrees, 47 point 7 minutes West"? Or should it be "41 degress, 27 minutes North by 8 degrees, 47 minutes 7 seconds West"? What is most confusing is that the minutes symbol (') is preceding the interpunct.

I appreciate any help you can provide in this.

And in case you might be curious, I'm looking for the coordinates of OPD's pelamis project. I found the pdf from a google search for wave farms.

Any information concerning how to read this is appreciated.

During the period 1991-1994. I wrote more that 150 surveying programs on two programable calculators (HP-48SX and Casio FX-795P) for my brothers surverying course at university. So from this, I can give a good reply to your problem:

All angles (on both calculators) were entered in HP (Hewlett Packard) format. ie DDD.MMSSsssss and converted into decimal degrees by a special algorithm.

To show output angles, I used the clean and non-confusing format of:

(Minus) DDD DEGREES MM MINUTES SS.ssss SECONDS for the FX-795P programs.
I also used the degree, minute and seconds symbols for some of the FX-795P programs as well.

And

HP format for the HP-48SX programs.

By brother said that the (Minus) DDD DEGREES MM MINUTES SS.ssss SECONDS was the type that his tutors and lecturers wanted to see.

If people at a university want to see this style, I guess it 's used alot in professional situations as well.

Many Russian and European papers do something like this, placing the degree symbol or the primes just before or above the decimal point. The first meaning is indicated, it is a fraction, not minutes and seconds.