How do I convert these coordinates to coordinates readable by Google Maps?

Question

Take a look at the map coordinates on this page. This is linked in from Wikipedia and the coordinates are passed the query string. I'm not sure of the actual terms for this but How do I convert the coordinates? They look like this:

37° 14′ 6″ N, 115° 48′ 40″ W

I would like them to look like this:

37.235, -115.811111

, which is a format readable by Google maps, as seen in this example.

How do I do this in PHP, and what are the two different types of coordinates called?

Answer 1

The original format is in hours, minutes, seconds format. To convert to decimal, do:

D = H + M/60 + s/3600

So in your example, 37,14,6 becomes

37 + 14/60 + 6/3600 = 37.235, as stated.

If the latitude is N the result is positive, if S, negative. If the longitude is E the result is positive. If west the result is negative.