Exactly how precise are latitude/longitude measurements?

1. 86

   DzyMsLizzyposted 11 years ago

   Exactly how precise are latitude/longitude measurements?
   
   Will my house have a different lat/long "address" than a neighbor right next door or directly across the street?

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2. 61

   ackman1465posted 11 years ago

   Latitude and longitude are EXACT.... that is, you keep honing down the units (degrees, minutes, seconds, fractions of seconds) until you get right to the spot.
   
   The bigger question is:  WHO maintains the lines of latitude and longitude on the oceans??????

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   1. 86

      DzyMsLizzyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      LOL  indeed---how do you draw lines on water???  :-))

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3. 68

   ahmed.bposted 11 years ago

   The simple answer is that latitude and longitude are precise enough to pin point a one foot by one foot area to just adjuscantly marked same area.
   But there is a complex answer as well which says that accuracy of a longitude and a latitude depends upon which geo refrencing and map projection are you using and where on the globe you are located. Some coordinate systems are more accurate over the others for a specific use.

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   1. 86

      DzyMsLizzyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Holey smokes--then by that measurement scale, you could pinpoint a specific ROOM within someone's home or building!! Dang!  Well, thank you--that settles the discussion with the neighbor....GPS puts you "within a few doors" of destination...

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4. 87

   nochanceposted 11 years ago

   If you put latitude and longitude into a GPS it should be able to get you within about 10 feet of it. Compared to an address which isn't usually connected with coordinates so the GPS has to guess, giving a larger window for error. I once had a GPS tell me I was at my destination but the house I wanted to get to was about 10 houses further down.

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   1. 86

      DzyMsLizzyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Right--but first you have to KNOW the lat/long info to do that. Otherwise, you're stuck with just street address, which probably accounts for the "within a few doors" error.  ;-)

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