Word Origin & History. amber mid-14c., ambergris, from O.Fr. ambre, from M.L. ambar, from Arabic 'anbar amber, a word brought home to Europe by the Crusaders. The sense was extended to fossil resin c.1400, which has become the main sense as the use of ambergris has waned. This formerly was known as white or yellow amber. In Fr., they are distinguished as ambre gris and amber jaune. Cf. also electric.
It depends on how closely he needs to describe the location. One degree of latitude is one nautical mile or about 6000 feet, so one second is about 100 feet. The fractions of a second are pretty useless, but degrees, minutes, and seconds are reasonable.
1 meter is approximately 3.28 feet. Should you wish to convert from feet to meters in your head, divide the figure by 3 for a very rough approximation. Converting meters to inches. There are approximately 39.37 inches in 1 meter. If you want to calculate a rough estimate in your head, multiply your meters figure by 40.