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Geodesic Distance Calculator

Calculate geodesic distance accounting for the Earth being an oblate spheroid.

About Geodesic Distance Calculator

The Earth is not a perfect sphere, so a spherical calculation carries up to about 0.5 per cent error. Ellipsoidal methods such as Vincenty’s reduce that to millimetres at the cost of iteration. For navigation and surveying the spheroidal correction matters; for trip planning the spherical figure is well within tolerance.

Formula

Geodesic Distance

Spherical distance, adjustable for the roughly 0.3 per cent flattening of the Earth

geodesic
The shortest path across a curved surface
oblate spheroid
The Earth is about 21 km wider at the equator than pole to pole

Worked example

With the default values below, Geodesic Distance Calculator returns Distance of 5,570.222. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

First latitudeaccepts -90–90 degrees
51.5074 degrees
First longitudeaccepts -180–180 degrees
-0.1278 degrees
Second latitudeaccepts -90–90 degrees
40.7128 degrees
Second longitudeaccepts -180–180 degrees
-74.006 degrees

Results

Distance
5,570.222 km
Distance
3,461.175 miles
Distance
3,007.681 nmi
Initial Bearing
288.33 degrees
Flight Time at 900 km/h
6.189 h

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Geodesic Distance
  3. 3Distance= 5,570.222 km
  4. 4Distance= 3,461.175 miles
  5. 5Distance= 3,007.681 nmi
  6. 6Initial Bearing= 288.33 degrees
  7. 7Flight Time at 900 km/h= 6.189 h

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Geodesic Distance calculated?

Spherical distance, adjustable for the roughly 0.3 per cent flattening of the Earth The Earth is not a perfect sphere, so a spherical calculation carries up to about 0.5 per cent error. Ellipsoidal methods such as Vincenty’s reduce that to millimetres at the cost of iteration.

Why does Geodesic Distance matter?

For navigation and surveying the spheroidal correction matters; for trip planning the spherical figure is well within tolerance.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 4 inputs: First latitude, First longitude, Second latitude, Second longitude. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.

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