Calculate distance between 2 GPS coordinates

Question

How do I calculate distance between two GPS coordinates (using latitude and longitude)?

Answer 1

This is version from "Henry Vilinskiy" adapted for MySQL and Kilometers:

CREATE FUNCTION `CalculateDistanceInKm`(
  fromLatitude float,
  fromLongitude float,
  toLatitude float, 
  toLongitude float
) RETURNS float
BEGIN
  declare distance float;

  select 
    6367 * ACOS(
            round(
              COS(RADIANS(90-fromLatitude)) *
                COS(RADIANS(90-toLatitude)) +
                SIN(RADIANS(90-fromLatitude)) *
                SIN(RADIANS(90-toLatitude)) *
                COS(RADIANS(fromLongitude-toLongitude))
              ,15)
            )
    into distance;

  return  round(distance,3);
END;

Answer 2

Scala version

  def deg2rad(deg: Double) = deg * Math.PI / 180.0

  def rad2deg(rad: Double) = rad / Math.PI * 180.0

  def getDistanceMeters(lat1: Double, lon1: Double, lat2: Double, lon2: Double) = {
    val theta = lon1 - lon2
    val dist = Math.sin(deg2rad(lat1)) * Math.sin(deg2rad(lat2)) + Math.cos(deg2rad(lat1)) *
      Math.cos(deg2rad(lat2)) * Math.cos(deg2rad(theta))
    Math.abs(
      Math.round(
        rad2deg(Math.acos(dist)) * 60 * 1.1515 * 1.609344 * 1000)
    )
  }

Answer 3

I recently had to do the same thing. I found this website to be very helpful explaining spherical trig with examples that were easy to follow along with.

Answer 4

C# Version of Haversine

double _eQuatorialEarthRadius = 6378.1370D;
double _d2r = (Math.PI / 180D);

private int HaversineInM(double lat1, double long1, double lat2, double long2)
{
    return (int)(1000D * HaversineInKM(lat1, long1, lat2, long2));
}

private double HaversineInKM(double lat1, double long1, double lat2, double long2)
{
    double dlong = (long2 - long1) * _d2r;
    double dlat = (lat2 - lat1) * _d2r;
    double a = Math.Pow(Math.Sin(dlat / 2D), 2D) + Math.Cos(lat1 * _d2r) * Math.Cos(lat2 * _d2r) * Math.Pow(Math.Sin(dlong / 2D), 2D);
    double c = 2D * Math.Atan2(Math.Sqrt(a), Math.Sqrt(1D - a));
    double d = _eQuatorialEarthRadius * c;

    return d;
}

Here's a .NET Fiddle of this, so you can test it out with your own Lat/Longs.

Answer 5

I guess you want it along the curvature of the earth. Your two points and the center of the earth are on a plane. The center of the earth is the center of a circle on that plane and the two points are (roughly) on the perimeter of that circle. From that you can calculate the distance by finding out what the angle from one point to the other is.

If the points are not the same heights, or if you need to take into account that the earth is not a perfect sphere it gets a little more difficult.

Answer 6

i took the top answer and used it in a Scala program

import java.lang.Math.{atan2, cos, sin, sqrt}

def latLonDistance(lat1: Double, lon1: Double)(lat2: Double, lon2: Double): Double = {
    val earthRadiusKm = 6371
    val dLat = (lat2 - lat1).toRadians
    val dLon = (lon2 - lon1).toRadians
    val latRad1 = lat1.toRadians
    val latRad2 = lat2.toRadians

    val a = sin(dLat / 2) * sin(dLat / 2) + sin(dLon / 2) * sin(dLon / 2) * cos(latRad1) * cos(latRad2)
    val c = 2 * atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1 - a))
    earthRadiusKm * c
}

i curried the function in order to be able to easily produce functions that have one of the two locations fixed and require only a pair of lat/lon to produce distance.