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View from the Swabian Jura to the Alps. Geographical distance or geodetic distance is the distance measured along the surface of the Earth, or the shortest arch length.. The formulae in this article calculate distances between points which are defined by geographical coordinates in terms of latitude and longitude.
A diagram illustrating great-circle distance (drawn in red) between two points on a sphere, P and Q. Two antipodal points, u and v are also shown. The great-circle distance, orthodromic distance, or spherical distance is the distance between two points on a sphere, measured along the great-circle arc between them. This arc is the shortest path ...
The haversine formula determines the great-circle distance between two points on a sphere given their longitudes and latitudes.Important in navigation, it is a special case of a more general formula in spherical trigonometry, the law of haversines, that relates the sides and angles of spherical triangles.
If a navigator begins at P 1 = (φ 1,λ 1) and plans to travel the great circle to a point at point P 2 = (φ 2,λ 2) (see Fig. 1, φ is the latitude, positive northward, and λ is the longitude, positive eastward), the initial and final courses α 1 and α 2 are given by formulas for solving a spherical triangle
Earth radius (denoted as R 🜨 or R E) is the distance from the center of Earth to a point on or near its surface. Approximating the figure of Earth by an Earth spheroid (an oblate ellipsoid), the radius ranges from a maximum (equatorial radius, denoted a) of nearly 6,378 km (3,963 mi) to a minimum (polar radius, denoted b) of nearly 6,357 km (3,950 mi).
The value formerly used in the United States was 6,080.20 feet = 1 nautical (geographical or sea) mile." [6] [7] This deprecated value of 6,080.2 feet is equivalent to 1,853.24 m. A separate reference identifies the geographic mile as being identical to the international nautical mile of 1,852 m and slightly shorter than the British nautical ...
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A great circle separates the sphere into two equal hemispheres, each with the great circle as its boundary. If a great circle passes through a point on the sphere, it also passes through the antipodal point (the unique furthest other point on the sphere). For any pair of distinct non-antipodal points, a unique great circle passes through both.