Question Video: Converting an Angle Expressed in Only Degrees to Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds Without Using a Calculator Mathematics • Third Year of Preparatory School

Video Transcript

Without using a calculator, write 20.7 degrees in degrees, minutes, and seconds.

20.7 degrees is the same as 20 degrees plus seven-tenths or 0.7 of a degree. We also recall that one degree is equal to 60 minutes. We know that the first part of our answer will be 20 degrees. And we need to convert 0.7 degrees into minutes or minutes and seconds. To convert 0.7 degrees into minutes, we need to multiply it by 60. 0.7 multiplied by 60 is equal to 42. This is because 0.7 multiplied by 10 is seven, and multiplying this by six gives us 42. 0.7 degrees is, therefore, equal to 42 minutes. As this was an exact number of minutes, we will have zero seconds. 20.7 degrees is, therefore, equal to 20 degrees, 42 minutes, and zero seconds.