Help with Latitude Longitude

[Dunc]

I've always been taught to use Degrees , minutes , decimals .But I understand the U.S uses Degrees Minutes Seconds .
  My iphone compass displays the later type and its of no use to me . I've down loaded an app that you can display in Degrees mins and seconds  or decimal but it display .. example : 52 47' 19.56" or in decimal 52.7888 but I need  it to just display the seconds as a decimal . Does this make sense ?

[Dunc]

It may help if I show you with a photo from a chart



The above displays where the arrow is pointing  52 45'.6N  which is 52 degrees 45minutes and 6 tenths of a minute



The above display  001 42'.6E  which is 1 degree 42 minute and 6tenths of a minute .

My iphone displays degrees minutes but instead of tenths of a minute its in seconds 

My head hurts now,  but all the online converters convert the whole lot into decimal 

[Carlos]

I've always been taught to use Degrees , minutes , decimals .But I understand the U.S uses Degrees Minutes Seconds .
  My iphone compass displays the later type and its of no use to me . I've down loaded an app that you can display in Degrees mins and seconds  or decimal but it display .. example : 52 47' 19.56" or in decimal 52.7888 but I need  it to just display the seconds as a decimal . Does this make sense ?

I think I understand what you mean.
Taking the 52.7888 is easy to do what you want: just take the decimal part and multiply by 60
52.7888 -> take 0.7888 * 60 = 47.3328 minutes. So you have 52 47.33280'

If you use the 52 47' 19.56" form, that's easy as well, you just take the seconds (with decimals) out and divide by 60.
52 47' 19.56" -> 19.56 / 60 = 0.326 minutes. So you have 52 47.3260'

These differences are due to rounding, because 52 47' 19.56" have this decimal part, (47 * 60 + 19.56)/3600, which gives 52.7887666666. Now taking the 0.7887666 * 60 gives 52 47.325999999'  as above.

[rdo]

I believe you would take the .6 * 60 seconds = 36 seconds.
.25 * 60 = 15
.50 * 60 = 30
.75 * 60 = 45

52 47' 19.56" = 52 47' 3.26E

19.56 / 60.0 = .326
.326 * 10 = 3.26

[Threeme2189]

You want to convert the seconds into "tenths of a minute" (decimal) right?
A second is 1/60 of a minute, and you want to make them 1/100 of a minute

This is the long explanation, if it doesn't make sense skip to the end.
just take the seconds and multiply them by 1/2/3 (1 and 2 thirds) to get them to where they're "out of 100" instead of 60, and then you have to divide them by 100 so they can be put straight after the minutes decimal point.
"seconds" x 1/2/3 / 100 = "seconds" / 60.

Long story short you have to take the seconds and divide them by 60.

So lets say you have 52 47' 19.56 which is 52 degrees, 47 minutes and 19.56 seconds. you divide the seconds by 60 and they become 0.326. then you just stick them onto the minutes.
And what you end up with is 52 47.326.

[Millhouse]

Dunc, try an app called Tom's GPS. I think it might do what you want. Its a freebie in the appstore.

[nuphoria]

It's too early....

[Dunc]

   That's a really big help thanks . Its all become a bit clearer 

and Millhouse that app is perfect for what I want thanks .

[Dunc]

It's too early....

Got your head round it yet