I am currently working on a spreadsheet for my college surveying class and I am stuck in a serious bind...

We measured 6 hubs using a bearing system (DMS) and now we have to get the cosine and sine of each bearing.

Example

87 degrees 12 minutes 48 seconds is the first measurement.....The distance is 150

the formula to get sine and cosine are Distance x Cos(Degree) but I don't know what formula I can use to get the DMS reading into degree?

My question is what formulas can I use to convert the DMS angle into a decimal?

87 degrees 12 minutes 48 seconds = 87.1233

if you punch 87.1233 into the calc and hit DD->DMS button it gives you the angle in DMS format...