GPS coordinates to metres

[Rishi Viner]

> Has anyone here done work with GPS coordinates. I have a set of coordinates
> and a point at the centre of my map. I need to convert these to metres
> relative to the centre of my map.
>
> The coordinates are in the form:
>
> Latitude        Longitude
> 37.29464     126.8324167
> 37.294642   126.832415
> 37.294642   126.832415
> 37.294642   126.8324133
> 37.294642   126.8324133

Looks like you have decimal degrees for lat/long. You'll pobably need to 
convert to degrees, minutes and seconds. (60 seconds in a minute etc). Then 
you could convert from coordinates to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) 
grid coordinates, which are in metres. Thats the fun part. Read up on 
geodetic datum conversions. (Simple concept intro here: 
http://www.biodiversity.ea.gov.au/erin/tools/geo2amg.html ).
There are various gov surveying web sites that explain the maths. Thats all I 
have time for now. Hope it helps,

-- 
Rishi