Re: Distance between coordinates

From: Gary S. (Idontwantspam_at_net)
Date: 03/28/05 

Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:09:39 GMT

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 08:50:35 -0800, Steve <rg@bcm.inv> wrote:

>I want to determine the distance between two coordinates, for example:
>
>N48.27547 W122.10030
>
>and
>
>N48.27615 W122.09973
>
>Can someone explain in layman's terms how this is done? Thanks!

Note the other answer with a great reference. A similar topic came up
in the last few weeks on this group, so Google may be helpful.

If the world were 2 dimensional, this would be easy. For shorter
distances, the 2D answer is close enough for most.

Pythagorus provides one solution, complicated by the fact that a
degree of longitude varies depending on distance from the Equator. You
first need to convert to a distance measurement, using a little trig
to get the actual longitudinal distance. Then it is trivial to get the
solution to c^2 = a^2 + b^2.

The real world is in fact 3 dimensional, roughly but not exactly
spherical or ellipsoidal. For longer distances, this will be quite
different from the 2D answer.

In layman's terms, get the right formula and plug in numbers.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear) 

-- 
At the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence
Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

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