Calculate distance between 2 GPS coordinates

Question

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

Answer 1

here is the Swift implementation from the answer

func degreesToRadians(degrees: Double) -> Double {
    return degrees * Double.pi / 180
}

func distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(lat1: Double, lon1: Double, lat2: Double, lon2: Double) -> Double {

    let earthRadiusKm: Double = 6371

    let dLat = degreesToRadians(degrees: lat2 - lat1)
    let dLon = degreesToRadians(degrees: lon2 - lon1)

    let lat1 = degreesToRadians(degrees: lat1)
    let lat2 = degreesToRadians(degrees: lat2)

    let a = sin(dLat/2) * sin(dLat/2) +
    sin(dLon/2) * sin(dLon/2) * cos(lat1) * cos(lat2)
    let c = 2 * atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1 - a))
    return earthRadiusKm * c
}

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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 4

PHP version:

(Remove all deg2rad() if your coordinates are already in radians.)

$R = 6371; // km
$dLat = deg2rad($lat2-$lat1);
$dLon = deg2rad($lon2-$lon1);
$lat1 = deg2rad($lat1);
$lat2 = deg2rad($lat2);

$a = sin($dLat/2) * sin($dLat/2) +
     sin($dLon/2) * sin($dLon/2) * cos($lat1) * cos($lat2); 

$c = 2 * atan2(sqrt($a), sqrt(1-$a)); 
$d = $R * $c;

Answer 5

Dart Version

Haversine Algorithm.

import 'dart:math';

class GeoUtils {

  static double _degreesToRadians(degrees) {
    return degrees * pi / 180;
  }

  static double 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 = sin(dLat/2) * sin(dLat/2) +
        sin(dLon/2) * sin(dLon/2) * cos(lat1) * cos(lat2);
    var c = 2 * atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1-a));
    return earthRadiusKm * c;
  }
}

Answer 6

It depends on how accurate you need it to be, if you need pinpoint accuracy, is best to look at an algorithm with uses an ellipsoid, rather than a sphere, such as Vincenty's algorithm, which is accurate to the mm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenty%27s_algorithm