![]() On iOS, head to Settings > Privacy > Location Services: Option A: An App on Your Phone or Tabletįirst things first – let’s get the device into ‘collection mode’. With that admittedly long introduction to GPS out of the way, there are three ways to get the GPS coordinates of where you took a photo (sometimes called ‘GPS tagging’). You may see the “minutes and seconds” method used by some apps or devices, so don’t get confused. ![]() While Google Maps supports both, you’ll find it easier to give (and type in) the decimal addresses. This is perfect to identify the front entrance, for instance, or an interesting feature of the building you’re visiting. That’s good enough to narrow the exact location to about 11 centimeters. The Grand Palace in this system, for example, is 13.750325, 100.491530.īy default, Google Maps gives you GPS coordinates with six decimal places. DecimalĪdd enough decimals to the degree until it’s precise enough for you. That’s good enough to tell one building from the next in most cases. That first decimal in the seconds narrows the exact location to about three meters. The coordinates for the Grand Palace in Bangkok, for example, are 13☄5’01.2″N 100☂9’29.5″E. There are 60 minutes in a degree, with 60 seconds in each minute. Two approaches are common: Arc-Minutes and Arc-Seconds One more detail: a single degree of latitude is about 111 kilometers, so we’ll need to narrow this down a bit to be useful. In other words, 45.3 S 13.7 W means ‘45.3 degrees south of the equator and 13.7 degrees west of the prime meridian.’ In decimals, it would be stated as -45.3 -13.7, since north and east are the default directions. Personally, I ignore those, but you’ll see them used in place of a minus sign. Some GPS coordinates can be given with a cardinal direction in mind, such as ‘N’ for north or ‘E’ for east. In this system, 0 degrees latitude and 0 degrees longitude equals a point on the equator in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 550 kilometers south of Accra, Ghana: The center of our world is… in the middle of nowhere. While the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere, we still measure longitude and latitude with degrees. The second number is the longitude (east or west direction.) 0 is the prime meridian which runs through Greenwich, England. The first number is the latitude (north or south direction.) 0 is the equator, 90 is the North Pole, -90 is the South Pole. What Goes Into a Set of GPS Coordinates?Īt its simplest, GPS coordinates are a pair of numbers, separated by a comma. Much like how a phone number can identify a single phone, a set of GPS coordinates can identify a single location. ![]() It doesn’t matter whether there’s a physical address system in the area or not, and it works with virtually any kind of technology out there. Simply put, knowing the GPS coordinates to a place means knowing a constant ‘address’ for an area. While they’re not always shown by default, the GPS coordinates (essentially, a string of numbers) can help us identify an exact location. Up in space, a network of satellites orbits the earth on very precise orbits, circling the earth twice a day.Ī GPS receiver (either a separate piece of hardware, or your phone) receives these signals from multiple satellites to triangulate your exact location, down to about five meters of accuracy. If you’ve heard of geocaching, this 21st-century game uses the GPS system as well. GPS is short for Global Positioning System - you’ve seen it being used in a car (“turn right in… 300 meters” or “reCALculating”) or when finding your current location on your phone. Great! Now How Do You See Those GPS Coordinates?
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