NavList:

Greg, you wrote:
"1 degree has 60 minutes so 1 minute is 1/60th of a degree or 0.016666 no?
shouldn't this just be tan of 1/60th of a degree?"

Sure. Of course. The problem is that trig functions can be calculated with arguments of degrees OR radian (or even grads or mils). When you enter a number on a common "scientific" calculator and then press a trigonometric function key, it will NORMALLY calculate the value under the assumption that the input was in degrees. But nearly all calculators include an option key that lets the user change the assumed input (decades ago this was the "DRG" key for degrees, radians, grads). If the calculator is set to radians, then when you enter 1/60 and press a trig key, you're getting the value for an angle that is a ratio of 1/60 which is about 57.3 minutes of arc. Get it?

But to reiterate, you do NOT need trig for this problem.

-FER

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