the difference in direction of the two sides. This size is measured in degrees (), minutes ('), and
seconds (").
a. The minutes are subdivisions of a degree. There are 60' in 1. The seconds are a subdivision
of the minutes. There are 60" in 1' and 3,600" in 1. Seconds are usually subdivided into tenths and
hundredths of a second and are always expressed as decimal fractions of a second.
b. The basis of all angles is the circle, which contains 360. The four ways 360 may be written
are as follows:
360
360 00' 00"
359 59' 60"
0 00' 00"
It should always be remembered that each of the minutes and seconds columns must have at least two
figures; therefore, many times a zero must be added in front for a single digit or two zeros must be
added to denote no minutes or seconds.
4-2. Computing Angles. The division of an angle is done by dividing the number into degrees,
minutes, and seconds. The important point to remember in the first portion of this process is that 1
equals 60' and when there are degrees remaining after the initial division, they must be converted to
minutes before carrying them over to the minutes column. As shown in the example below, 3 will go
into 10 3 times, leaving a remainder of 1. Before making the second division, this 1 must be changed
to 60' and added to the number of minutes in the original problem.
a. The original problem shows 32'. Add 60' (the remainder of 1) to 32', which results in a sum
of 92. Divide 92 by 3, which will go 30 times with a remainder of 2'.
Example: Divide 10 32' 14" by 3.
Solution:
EN0591
4-2
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