I checked my calculations for finding the direct distance between Newport, RI and El Segundo, CA. I used latitude/longitude coordinates, arc length, and the Pythagorean Theorem. The right triangle and arc length based calculations will not the same as what you get using an online distance calculator (and they shouldn't be). Do some further reading if you want to know why.
You are still expected to find the calculations by hand.
I wrote the El Segundo problem to give you an
opportunity to do three things:
- Show that you know how to convert
coordinates (both Latitude and Longitude) from degree minutes seconds to
decimal degrees and vice-versa.
- Make the
connection that you can use the difference between any two latitudes (an
angle) and the radius of the earth to calculate a curved distance over the surface of the Earth. You can do a similar set of calculations for the Longitudes.
-
THEN APPLY THE
PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM.
Kind of
like the diagram above. Basically, get
the red and blue then
a^2 + b^2 = c^2 to get green
a^2 + b^2 = c^2 to get green
Give it a shot and hand in Monday.
Source:
http://derickrethans.nl/spatial-indexes-calculating-distance.html
BUT:
because of the curvature of the earth and other factors the diagonal
distance Between
cities will not be precise. A full
explanation is pretty complicated but is explained in more detail using the link above.
New addition to the Trig. playlist: A Tribe Called Quest
