Traverse Latitude

In traverse surveying, a line can be split into perpendicular parts: one running north-south and the other east-west. The latitude is the north-south projection, so it is found by taking the line length and multiplying by the cosine of its bearing angle, because cosine gives the adjacent side of a right triangle relative to the chosen angle. This works when the bearing is measured from the north-south axis, which is the usual surveying convention.

Use this when reducing a measured traverse line into coordinate components for plotting, checking closure, or computing the next station’s northing. It is especially useful in land surveying, route surveying, and any calculation where bearings and distances must be converted into rectangular components.

• Using sine instead of cosine for latitude
• Forgetting that the sign depends on direction, so southward components should be negative
• Putting the bearing into the calculator in the wrong angle mode, such as radians instead of degrees