What comes after seconds?

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Solution 1

[Converting comment to answer, as requested.]

As noted in the Subdivisions section of Wikipedia's "Degree" article, one can continue with 60ths of 60ths of 60ths of a degree, etc. With that system, one-tenth of a second would be 6 "thirds" ($0.1^{\prime\prime}=6^{\prime\prime\prime}$), and one-tenth of a "third" would be 6 "fourths", and so on.

It should be mentioned that the international standard (ISO 6709) for geo-coordinates favors decimal degrees over even using minutes and seconds. Sexagesimal subdivisions would seem to be falling out of favor.

Solution 2

1/60 of a degree is actually called a minute of arc or arcmin. It is informally called minute. 1/60 of 1 arcmin is called arcsecond Standard SI Prefixes can be used to describe smaller units of angular measurement, for instance, centiarcsecond is 1/100 of an arcsecond.

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John Doe
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Updated on August 01, 2022

Comments

  • John Doe
    John Doe over 1 year

    Angles can be measured in different ways. For example, one can measure angles in degrees/minutes/seconds. So $1^\circ$ is divded into $60$ min. and $1$ min is divided into $60$ sec. That way a tenth of a minute is $6$ seconds. Are seconds divided into anything? If one has for example a tenth of a second, is this just $0.1 $ sec. ?

    • Blue
      Blue over 8 years
      As noted in the Subdivisions section of Wikipedia's "Degree" article, one can continue with 60ths of 60ths of 60ths of a degree, etc. With that system, one-tenth of a second would be 6 "thirds" ($0.1^{\prime\prime} = 6^{\prime\prime\prime}$), and one-tenth of a "third" would be 6 "fourths", and so on. It should be noted that the international standard (ISO 6709) for geo-coordinates favors decimal degrees over even using minutes and seconds; sexagesimal subdivisions would seem to be falling out of favor.