<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV> <DIV>John,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I agree with the points you make.  Someone else wrote to me off list with the same concerns.  I haven't thought this problem completely through.  For now, as a general rule, I plan to use coordinates to one decimal place to specify a town or village.  If I have an exact address (or location of a tombstone), I'll use four or five decimal places.  Even these plans have their faults.  In any case, if I write a narrative that includes coordinates, I will take your advice and explain my intent.  Perhaps something as simple as "Coordinates expressed to one decimal place denote a general area.  Coordinates expressed to four decimal places denote an exact location" might be sufficient.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>By the way, where the heck is our esteemed colleague Randy Seaver?  His background and expertise is just what is needed for this discussion!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Stephen J. Danko</DIV> <DIV><A href="http://www.stephendanko.com/">http://www.stephendanko.com/</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><FONT size=2 face=Tahoma> <HR SIZE=1> <B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> John <john@jytangledweb.org><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> apgpubliclist@apgen.org<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Tue, October 26, 2010 9:42:50 PM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [APG Public List] [APG Members] place names<BR></FONT><BR>Stephen,<BR><BR>What you say has truth in it, but in practice one might not<BR>make the leap that the number of significant figures presented<BR>means that the uncertainty is in the next decimal place.<BR>In scientific publications one always attempts a computation<BR>of RMSD (root mean square deviation) and write it with a +/-<BR>to prevent confusion. Like 37.79507 +/-0.00005</DIV></DIV></div></body></html>