How To Change Latitude And Longitude

5 Answers 5

Wikipedia to the rescue:

The surface layer of the Earth, the lithosphere, is broken up into several tectonic plates. Each plate moves in a different direction, at speeds of about 50 to 100 mm per year. As a result, for example, the longitudinal difference between a point on the equator in Uganda (on the African Plate) and a point on the equator in Ecuador (on the South American Plate) is increasing by about 0.0014 arcseconds per year.

answered Dec 16 '09 at 16:50

CarraCarra

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It depends on the map projection variables you use. Currently WGS-84 is used mostly.

The same point can have different coordinates depending on the variables. They do not differ a lot, I remember the difference between EUR-50 (or something like that) and WGS-84 was at most 50 meters or something.

answered Dec 16 '09 at 16:54

GvSGvS

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You're tangentially referring to geodetics, which is the science of modelling (representing) the shape of the earth. So while a physical location may not change, the datum (model) used by a geodetic coordinate system will change, fortunately this does not happen frequently.

In North America NAD83 is the mostly widely used datum, which replaced NAD27.

Did I mention that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was my foray into software development?

answered Dec 16 '09 at 17:11

Matthew SposatoMatthew Sposato

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Yes. Zip codes get split all the time, and doing so would move the center of the zip code to a new location.

answered Dec 16 '09 at 16:31

Aric TenEyckAric TenEyck

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What s longitude or latitude got to do with zip code ? Definition of longitude: the angular distance between a point on any meridian and the prime meridian at Greenwich. How this will change? I understand zip code changes but how this affects it s location relative to Greenwich?

Dec 16 '09 at 16:35
"What s longitude or latitude got to do with zip code": Nothing. The question was about the lng/lat of a particular postal code, whether it can change or not.

Dec 16 '09 at 16:40
But I think the question has been edited.. it does not mention postal codes anymore..

Dec 16 '09 at 16:45
Yes, the original question asked if the longitude / latitude of a postal code (In American English, a Zip Code) could ever change.

Dec 16 '09 at 17:02

47.554 always equals 47.554

But if the shape of the earth changes or you are using different methods of calculations (there are plenty) or if the input data changes in precision or if if your compiler treats floating point differently..

you'll end up in different long/lat

answered Dec 16 '09 at 16:49

Are you saying that long/lat to 3 decimal places will be a consistent reliable coordinate?

Feb 8 '16 at 22:56
@chris No see the accepted answer... You might geolocate a city where its center is at 1.23456 and years later be at 1.23457.

Feb 9 '16 at 0:20
ah i was hoping you had done the math and that 3 decimal places would be safe :)

Feb 9 '16 at 0:28

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