Calculate the distance between two coordinates by latitude and longitude, including a Javascript implementation.
West and South locations are negative.
Remember minutes and seconds are out of 60 so S31 30' is -31.50 degrees.
Don't forget to convert degrees to radians. Many languages have this function. Or its a simple calculation: radians = degrees * PI / 180
.
function degreesToRadians(degrees) {
return degrees * Math.PI / 180;
}
function distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {
var earthRadiusKm = 6371;
var dLat = degreesToRadians(lat2-lat1);
var dLon = degreesToRadians(lon2-lon1);
lat1 = degreesToRadians(lat1);
lat2 = degreesToRadians(lat2);
var a = Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) +
Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.cos(lat1) * Math.cos(lat2);
var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a));
return earthRadiusKm * c;
}
Here are some examples of usage:
distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(0,0,0,0) // Distance between same
// points should be 0
0
distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(51.5, 0, 38.8, -77.1) // From London
// to Arlington
5918.185064088764
Eli, the code you've settled on is incorrect. A point near the line on which the segment lies but far off one end of the segment would be incorrectly judged near the segment. Update: The incorrect answer mentioned is no longer the accepted one.
Here's some correct code, in C++. It presumes a class 2D-vector class vec2 {float x,y;}
, essentially, with operators to add, subract, scale, etc, and a distance and dot product function (i.e. x1 x2 + y1 y2
).
float minimum_distance(vec2 v, vec2 w, vec2 p) {
// Return minimum distance between line segment vw and point p
const float l2 = length_squared(v, w); // i.e. |w-v|^2 - avoid a sqrt
if (l2 == 0.0) return distance(p, v); // v == w case
// Consider the line extending the segment, parameterized as v + t (w - v).
// We find projection of point p onto the line.
// It falls where t = [(p-v) . (w-v)] / |w-v|^2
// We clamp t from [0,1] to handle points outside the segment vw.
const float t = max(0, min(1, dot(p - v, w - v) / l2));
const vec2 projection = v + t * (w - v); // Projection falls on the segment
return distance(p, projection);
}
EDIT: I needed a Javascript implementation, so here it is, with no dependencies (or comments, but it's a direct port of the above). Points are represented as objects with x
and y
attributes.
function sqr(x) { return x * x }
function dist2(v, w) { return sqr(v.x - w.x) + sqr(v.y - w.y) }
function distToSegmentSquared(p, v, w) {
var l2 = dist2(v, w);
if (l2 == 0) return dist2(p, v);
var t = ((p.x - v.x) * (w.x - v.x) + (p.y - v.y) * (w.y - v.y)) / l2;
t = Math.max(0, Math.min(1, t));
return dist2(p, { x: v.x + t * (w.x - v.x),
y: v.y + t * (w.y - v.y) });
}
function distToSegment(p, v, w) { return Math.sqrt(distToSegmentSquared(p, v, w)); }
EDIT 2: I needed a Java version, but more important, I needed it in 3d instead of 2d.
float dist_to_segment_squared(float px, float py, float pz, float lx1, float ly1, float lz1, float lx2, float ly2, float lz2) {
float line_dist = dist_sq(lx1, ly1, lz1, lx2, ly2, lz2);
if (line_dist == 0) return dist_sq(px, py, pz, lx1, ly1, lz1);
float t = ((px - lx1) * (lx2 - lx1) + (py - ly1) * (ly2 - ly1) + (pz - lz1) * (lz2 - lz1)) / line_dist;
t = constrain(t, 0, 1);
return dist_sq(px, py, pz, lx1 + t * (lx2 - lx1), ly1 + t * (ly2 - ly1), lz1 + t * (lz2 - lz1));
}
Here, in the function parameters, <px,py,pz>
is the point in question and the line segment has the endpoints <lx1,ly1,lz1>
and <lx2,ly2,lz2>
. The function dist_sq
(which is assumed to exist) finds the square of the distance between two points.
Best Answer
I get most of those types of formulas from The Aviation Formulary.
The formula he gives is:
Note that he's using "tc" to stand for true course (in radians clockwise from North) and the distances he gives are in radians of arc along the surface of the earth. This is explained (along with formulas to convert back and forth from nautical miles) in the first section of the Formulary. Also, check out the "Implementation Notes" and "Worked Examples" on that page.