Great Circle Travel Distance
Find the shortest distance between two coordinates using the haversine formula.
About Great Circle Travel Distance
The haversine formula converts latitude and longitude differences into the central angle between two points on a sphere, then multiplies by the Earth's radius to get kilometers. This gives the shortest great-circle route rather than a driving path. Flights follow great-circle routes, so the haversine distance is the true aerial separation between cities and the basis for realistic flight planning.
Formula
Great Circle Travel Distance
d = 6371 x 2 x atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1-a)); a = sin2(dlat/2) + cos(p1)cos(p2))sin2(dlon/2)
- a
- Haversine intermediate value built from the latitude and longitude deltas
Worked example
With the default values below, Great Circle Travel Distance returns Distance of 5,570.2. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Latitude of point Aaccepts -90–90 deg
- 40.7128 deg
- Longitude of point Aaccepts -180–180 deg
- -74.006 deg
- Latitude of point Baccepts -90–90 deg
- 51.5074 deg
- Longitude of point Baccepts -180–180 deg
- -0.1278 deg
Results
- Distance
- 5,570.2 km
- Distance
- 3,461.2 mi
- Bearing Line Radius
- Shortest over-ground route between the two points
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Great Circle Travel Distance
- 3Distance= 5,570.2 km
- 4Distance= 3,461.2 mi
- 5Bearing Line Radius= Shortest over-ground route between the two points
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 1 decimal place, 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 Great Circle Travel Distance calculated?
d = 6371 x 2 x atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1-a)); a = sin2(dlat/2) + cos(p1)cos(p2))sin2(dlon/2) The haversine formula converts latitude and longitude differences into the central angle between two points on a sphere, then multiplies by the Earth's radius to get kilometers. This gives the shortest great-circle route rather than a driving path.
Why does Great Circle Travel Distance matter?
Flights follow great-circle routes, so the haversine distance is the true aerial separation between cities and the basis for realistic flight planning.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 4 inputs: Latitude of point A, Longitude of point A, Latitude of point B, Longitude of point B. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.