I have a program that needs to compute the distance between two locations using their GPS coordinates. I had attempted to use the Halverson formula, but my calculations are off by many miles, almost 30%. My code (in C#) is as follows:
private double Calc(double Lat1, double Long1, double Lat2, double Long2)
{
/*
The Haversine formula according to Dr. Math.
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/51879.html dlon = lon2 - lon1
dlat = lat2 - lat1
a = (sin(dlat/2))^2 + cos(lat1) * cos(lat2) * (sin(dlon/2))^2
c = 2 * atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1-a))
d = R * c
Where
* dlon is the change in longitude
* dlat is the change in latitude
* c is the great circle distance in Radians.
* R is the radius of a spherical Earth.
* The locations of the two points in spherical coordinates (longitude and latitude) are lon1,lat1 and lon2, lat2.
*/
double dDistance = Double.MinValue;
double dLat1InRad = Lat1 * (Math.PI / 180.0);
double dLong1InRad = Long1 * (Math.PI / 180.0);
double dLat2InRad = Lat2 * (Math.PI / 180.0);
double dLong2InRad = Long2 * (Math.PI / 180.0);
double dLongitude = dLong2InRad - dLong1InRad;
double dLatitude = dLat2InRad - dLat1InRad;
// Intermediate result a.
double a = Math.Pow(Math.Sin(dLatitud
e / 2.0), 2.0) +
Math.Cos(dLat1InRad) * Math.Cos(dLat2InRad) *
Math.Pow(Math.Sin(dLongitu
de / 2.0), 2.0);
// Intermediate result c (great circle distance in Radians).
double c = 2.0 * Math.Atan2(Math.Sqrt(a), Math.Sqrt(1.0 - a));
// Distance.
// const Double kEarthRadiusMiles = 3956.0;
const Double kEarthRadiusKms = 6376.5;
dDistance = kEarthRadiusKms * c;
return dDistance;
}
//----------------- computes distance using direction ---------------------
public double Calc(string NS1, double Lat1, double Lat1Min, string EW1, double Long1, double Long1Min,
string NS2, double Lat2, double Lat2Min, string EW2, double Long2, double Long2Min)
{
// usage: ComputeDistance.Calc(" N 43 35.500 W 80 27.800 N 43 35.925 W 80 28.318");
double NS1Sign = NS1.ToUpper() == "N" ? 1.0 : -1.0;
double EW1Sign = NS1.ToUpper() == "E" ? 1.0 : -1.0;
double NS2Sign = NS2.ToUpper() == "N" ? 1.0 : -1.0;
double EW2Sign = EW2.ToUpper() == "E" ? 1.0 : -1.0;
return (Calc( (Lat1 + (Lat1Min / 60)) * NS1Sign,
(Long1 + (Long1Min / 60)) * EW1Sign,
(Lat2 + (Lat2Min / 60)) * NS2Sign,
(Long2 + (Long2Min / 60)) * EW2Sign
));
}
Can someone please tell me where my error is? (I am not a math major, nor anywhere close to one).
Thanks...
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