Sunlit Design > InfoSearch > Degrees, Minutes and Seconds
Index: A-D, E-R, S-Z
A
- Accuracy of Sundials
- A.D. Years
- Altitude, Solar
- Angle above Horizon, Solar
- Apparent Time
- "Astronomical Algorithms"
- Astronomical Calculations, Time Basis of
- Azimuth, Solar
- Daylight Saving Time
- Declination, Solar
- Degrees, Minutes and Seconds
- Degrees of Rotation
- Dynamical Time
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds
A degree of angle is 1/360th part of a complete rotation about a fixed point.When measuring angles using degrees, it is common to use a sexagesimal (base 60) notation for parts of degrees.
The minute (or more properly arcminute) is defined as 1/60th part of a degree.
The second (or more properly arcsecond) is defined as 1/60th part of an arcminute. (And therefore 1/3600 part of a degree)
An angle value may be shown in d:m:s notation as 3:4:56 or 3d:4m:56s meaning 3 degrees 4 arcminutes and 56 arcseconds. This is equivalent to 3.0822 degrees (to 4 decimal places).
Calculate it!
The Sun API functions use degrees rather than radians for angular measure. The Sun API also provides a full set of degree based trigonometry functions (sdSin, sdCos, sdTan, sdASin, sdACos, sdATan). Degrees may be converted to other units using the sdD2Unit function.