Mercator Sailing: Course and Distance

[Eddie W. Shore]

(08-12-2018 05:13 PM)Dieter Wrote:  

(08-10-2018 03:08 AM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  Latitude 1: 102° 54’ 16” W = 102.9044444444°
Longitude 1: 43° 21’ 16” N = 43.3544444444°
Latitude 2: 106° 3’ 8” W = 106.0522222222°
Longitude 2: 42° 4’ 30” N = 42.075°

Results:

Course: 5.782390957°

Distance: 189.832588 mi

Eddie, I think you confused latitudes and longitudes here. There are no latitudes > 90°.

I also wonder how you get these results. For the given data I get a distance of 159,03 nmi and a course of 61,14° Southwest (241,14° true course). This matches the result of an online calculator where I checked the results.

Finally, what sign convention does your program use? Are West and South positions entered with negative sign?

Dieter

I always get latitude and longitude mixed up. Going by the book's examples (pg. 78), north and west were entered as positives.