What is the unit of measurement for latitude and longitude?

Answer 1

Latitude and longitude are angles, and are best expressed in units of angle measurement.

The most commonly used are degrees, minutes, seconds, and fractions of seconds.

Increasingly common, with the advent of GPS systems, decimal equivalents are used for the fractional part of degrees.

Answer 2

There are several systems for measuring latitude and longitude. Traditionally, sailors have used degrees, minutes and seconds to measure latitude and longitude.

In this system latitude is measured north and south of the equator with one degree of latitude equaling 60 nautical miles, one minute of latitude = one nautical mile and one second of latitude = 1/60th of a nautical mile.

Longitude is measured east and west of Greenwich, England, but because the lines of longitude are widely spaced at the equator and converge at the poles, there is no constant distance associated with longitude.

With the advent of GPS, degrees, minutes and tenths of minutes are often used instead of degrees, minutes and seconds. The two systems are not interchangeable and confusion over which system is being used is a common source of navigational errors.

Answer 3

The unit of measurement for latitude and longitude is degrees. Latitude is measured in degrees north or south of the equator, while longitude is measured in degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian.