Find distance between two points on Earth

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To find the distance between two geographic points using a great circle, one can use the provided coordinates and convert decimal minutes to minutes and seconds for accuracy. The distance calculated between N12° 34.567 W12° 34.567 and N12° 34.568 W12° 34.567 is approximately 6.076 feet. While the great circle method is effective for short distances, it does not account for the Earth's flattening, which complicates calculations for larger distances. For precise results over longer distances, more complex formulas considering the Earth's shape are necessary. Overall, the great circle method provides a straightforward approach for calculating distances between close points on the Earth's surface.
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How could you find the distance between two points, such as
N12° 34.567 W12° 34.567
and
N12° 34.568 W12° 34.567?
 
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Wow, how interesting, i didn't see this thread when i posted mine.

Anyway, i guess my treatment of the subject is quite accessible.

Daniel.
 
0.0011506641413132668 miles
or 6.076 feet
 
Last edited:
Mk said:
How could you find the distance between two points, such as
N12° 34.567 W12° 34.567
and
N12° 34.568 W12° 34.567?
Be careful though, becasue you have a mixed lat long.. you have to convert the decimal of minutes to minutes and seconds. 34.567 minutes = 34 Minutes 34.02 seconds(.567 * 60)..
 
Guys, I wanted to know how I could get the answer, not for you to tell me or give me an app to do do it for me.
 
"Unfortunately, the flattening of the Earth cannot be taken into account in this simple derivation, since the problem is considerably more complicated for a spheroid or ellipsoid (each of which has a radius which is a function of latitude). This leads to extremely complicated expressions for oblate spheroid geodesics and geodesics on other ellipsoids."
So you won't get the most accurate solutions; but that's no problem if dealing with relatively short distances.
 
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