Gradians (gon) to Arcminutes (′) Conversion

Gradians

The gradian (gon), also written grad, is a unit of angle that divides a full circle into exactly 400 equal parts, making a right angle exactly 100 gradians. Introduced during the French Revolution as part of the metric system reforms of the 1790s, the gradian was intended to decimalise angular measurement the way the metre decimalised length. It is still used in land surveying, civil engineering, and military mapping in parts of continental Europe — particularly France, the Netherlands, and Sweden — where its decimal relationship with right angles simplifies triangulation calculations.

Arcminutes

The arcminute (′, Unicode U+2032) is a unit of angle equal to exactly 1/60 of a degree, or π/10,800 radians. It is used in astronomy to describe the apparent size of celestial objects — the full Moon subtends approximately 30 arcminutes (half a degree) as seen from Earth. In navigation, position coordinates are routinely expressed in degrees and arcminutes: 51°30′N is the latitude of London. In optics, the resolving power of the human eye is approximately 1 arcminute, which is why standard vision charts are designed accordingly.

Convert Gradians (gon) to other units of Angle