help needed for homework for my child

You might try Google Earth for a start.

We have tried that but can't figure it out im not that good with this whole internet thing

I am no expert at this so I could be wrong, but I didn't have a problem finding it on google maps, Perhaps try entering it as below and zoom out till you see something.

-16.30,-151.45

Where - means south 16 is the decimal deg 45 is the minutes and you have no seconds. Same thing for the longitude except in this case - means west 151 deg 45 minutes, you get the idea.

Why do I have to remember that you live in Melbourne Australia?

I had a look at google because I am rather curious.

I would rather suggest an old fashioned approach.

Get a book with world maps and follow the degree lines. Remember that there are 60 min in a degree. 30' would therefore be 0.5 degrees.

thank you all so much for trying to help but we only have 4 hours left figure this out before my son has to hand in this project

i have tried every suggestion from everyone i guess this just means my son has a dumb mother lol

thanks again all

Guest,

As Hendrik & Truman Brain already stated, the coordinates lead you to Bora Bora.

You can simply plug in your coordinates into Google maps, and you will be brought to the lovely island a little North of Tahiti.

The coordinates seem to place you a little northeast of Vaitape, at or near the eastern edge of development on the west shore of the island, at the western "foothills" to Mount Otemanu, an ancient volcanic cone, over 2000 feet tall, situated in the center of the island.

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Just my $0.02...

Viatape on the Island Bora Bora.

About in the centre of the photo.

That's what I get too Hendrik!

16 30' s, 151 45' w paste that into google earth fly to box!

If you use google maps and put in "-16.30,-151.45" it actually isn't exactly on that island its in the ocean above and to the right of it. If you put in "16 30' s, 151 45' w" it automatically adjusts and makes the coordinates -16.50, -151.75 which on the island you have stated.

I suspect they are looking for the Polynesian islands as opposed to one particular island.

Your original post stated "the question is locate 16 30 south, 151 45 west Remembering that we live in Melbourne Australia"

You now say "If you use google maps and put in "-16.30,-151.45" it actually isn't exactly on that island"...why would you do that? 16 30 s means 16^o 30' south and 151 45 w means 151^o 45' west. One degree equals sixty minutes so 30' = 0.5^o and 45' = 0.75^o. In decimal form, the correct location is -16.5, -151.75 which is on the island of Bora Bora.

By the way, what does living in Melbourne Australia have to do with the problem?

Hi ba/ael

I hope this guest is not the OP guest, but if it is the little brat deserves to fail. (leaving a project until that late - close to midnight in Oz)

I think the teacher or education Dept. deserves some credit for asking a simple question in a way that the child should use a bit of the grey stuff.

They most probably have a map of the islands with coordinates in a handbook and all that was required was to open the book.

Hi Hendrik,

I was assuming that 'guest' was the same person throughout the thread, but possibly not. In any case, I agree that work on the assignment should have commenced a bit earlier.

We at CR4 are reading the problem out of context. If the assignment was given by the geography teacher and the class has been studying angular measurement, world co-ordinates, conversion to decimal degrees and so forth, then the assignment should have been a very straightforward one for the student, but not necessarily for his mother.

Anyway, what happened to our policy of not helping with homework assignments? I guess that applies only when they don't tell us it's a homework assignment, right? In this case, there was no doubt about it as it was plainly revealed in the title of the thread.