Question 1

How do I convert between DMS and decimal degrees?

Accepted Answer

One degree is 60 minutes and one minute is 60 seconds, so 30° 15′ 20″ = 30 + 15/60 + 20/3600 ≈ 30.2556°. Pick “Degrees · minutes · seconds” as the input unit and type the value (the converter accepts Arabic numerals and either ° ′ ″ symbols or plain spaces); the decimal degrees and the other units appear instantly.

Question 2

What are gradians (gon) and NATO mils?

Accepted Answer

A gradian (gon) divides the circle into 400 units instead of 360, so a right angle is 100 gon; it is used in European surveying and some total stations. A NATO mil divides the circle into 6400 units and is used in artillery and the military because it approximates a milliradian (1 mil ≈ 1 metre at 1000 metres range).

Question 3

What is the difference between a bearing and an azimuth?

Accepted Answer

An azimuth is a whole-circle direction measured 0–360° clockwise from north. A quadrantal bearing is measured 0–90° from the nearer end of the N–S axis with the quadrant named, e.g. N30E (30° east of north = azimuth 30°) or S45W (= azimuth 225°). The lower panel converts both ways and also accepts Arabic ش/ج/ق/غ letters.

Question 4

Why radians?

Accepted Answer

The radian is the natural unit for computation: a full circle is 2π radians and a right angle is π/2. Trigonometric functions in code (JavaScript, Python) expect radians, not degrees, so we surface a copy-ready radian value for coordinate maths and instrument setup.

Unit	Value	Copy
Decimal degrees	45
Degrees · minutes · seconds	45° 0' 0.00"
Gradians (gon)	50
Mils (NATO)	800
Radians	0.78539816

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Angle & bearing converter

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Excel traverse observation sheet with a closed-square example

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