Math help; specifically, Trig

[Neon Pink Shoehorn]

So, upon realizing that the Navy sends you to school for six months and in that six months they expect you to learn Trig, Calc, physics, and a variety of other courses that I never contemplated taking in High School, I've decided to teach myself some trigonometry. I found this site (http://www.clarku.edu/~djoyce/trig/) but it's not complete. I know I'm missing some details.

Here's one: I'm not sure how to convert seconds of degree into decimal degrees. One of the problems gives the angle 0 degrees, 17 minutes 48 seconds. I'm fairly sure that 17 minutes is about equal to .02833, but I don't know at what decimal place to add the 48 seconds, err, the .8 minute of degree. Am I just being dense?

[Kenshin]

You have to convert everything into degrees, minutes, or seconds, depending on the problem. For your example, 17' = 0.08233..., and you have to convert the 48 seconds to minutes, then those minutes to degrees, and add them to what you have so far. (You could've converted everything to seconds though; again, depends on the problem.)

If 1° = 60' and 1' = 60'' then 1° = 3600''.

So,
48 s / 3600 (s/°) = 0.0133....°

0.08233...° + 0.0133...° ~= 0.09566...°

Edit:
Wait, what the...? I'm rechecking this, and the numbers don't add up.
0° 17' 48''
17' * 60''/1'= 1020'' + 48'' = 1068''
Now, in reverse: 1068'' * 1'/60'' = 17.8'
17.8' * 1°/60' = 0.2966666666667° (which, according to this (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/convertDMS), is correct... Now I know where I messed up. I wrote a zero which shouldn't have been there when adding the minutes. It should have been 0.28333 instead of 0.028333)

[Neon Pink Shoehorn]

You know, almost as soon as I articulated that I didn't know where to add the .8 minute of degree, I realized that I should've converted the seconds, then added that to the minutes, then converted the minutes.

48/60= 0.8; 17.8/60 = 0.741666...

Woo. Teaching yourself higher math is not for everyone, I think...

[Trump]

If you can figure that out on your own you are doing just fine. It means you think for yourself and look forward to learning. Don't let one little set back slow you down, and don't hesitate to ask questions!