Re: Distance between coordinates

From: Keith Sheppard (keith.sheppard_at_tesco.net)
Date: 03/29/05 

Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 12:01:13 GMT

>>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!

Do you want to know how to do it, or do you just want the job done without
worrying too much about the details? There are a number of web sites which
do such calculations for you.

If you want to know how it's done then it depends to some extent on how
accurate you want to be. If you assume the earth is a perfect sphere (which
it isn't) then a quick bit of trigonometry will soon reveal an approximate
answer.

If you want something more accurate then you're into the murky world of
ellipsoids, datums and the like.

Keith