Borek said:Are you sure you are expected to watch sig figs?
To be on the safe side I would simply use the same number of digits after conversion. Please remember sig figs are rather lousy way of describing precision, and they are never worth too much effort.
deedsy said:I guess the question becomes, where does the 52.43 seconds fit into the decimal degrees' answer? The seconds are accurate to the hundredth decimal place, but where is that hundredth decimal place in relation to the decimal places contained in the decimal degree answer?
Significant figures are the digits in a measurement that are reliable and certain. They indicate the precision of the measurement and are used to avoid misleading or inaccurate results.
In a DMS (degrees, minutes, seconds) measurement, there are often digits that are estimated or uncertain. When converting to decimal degrees, these digits can affect the accuracy of the result. Significant figures help to determine the appropriate level of precision in the conversion process.
In a DMS measurement, all non-zero digits are significant. Zeros at the beginning of a number are not significant, but zeros at the end of a number may or may not be significant depending on whether they are used as placeholders or are actually measured. For example, in the measurement 42.00 seconds, all four digits are significant, but in 0.0080 degrees, only two digits are significant.
The general rule for rounding when converting from DMS to decimal degrees is to round the final result to the same number of significant figures as the original measurement. If the final digit is 5 or higher, round up. If it is 4 or lower, round down.
Yes, significant figures can affect the accuracy of your conversion. Rounding can introduce errors, and using too many or too few significant figures can result in an inaccurate final result. It is important to count and use the appropriate number of significant figures in order to maintain the precision of the measurement.