A new procedure for the transformation from geocentric to geodetic coo
rdinates is introduced and analyzed. This new procedure which contains
only one trigonometric function uses the Newton's iteration to solve
the root of a non-linear equation. Compared with the well-known Bowrin
g's iterative algorithm which uses a number of trigonometric functions
, the new procedure is more efficient in computation. Numeric examples
are used to test the two algorithms and the results show that the new
procedure converges just as well as Bowring's algorithm but requires
less time for completion.