Because the Earth is approximately spherical, the great circle distance is commonly used to find the distance (e.g. in miles) between two coordinates (latitude/longitude pairs) on a map. First, some definitions:
Table of contents |
2 The Formula 3 Practical Application 4 See Also |
Definitions
The Formula
Practical Application
Choose two points
In order to use this formula for anything practical you will need two sets of coordinates. For example, the latitude and longitude of two airports:Convert coordinates
You will have to convert these coordinates to a more mathematically friendly form using a simple method before you can use them effectively in a formula. After conversion, the coordinates become: