Calculating the Distance Between Two Points on Earth
<p>As most of us know, Earth is not flat. It is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoid" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">geoid</a> or approximately an <a href="https://mathworld.wolfram.com/OblateSpheroid.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">oblate spheroid</a>. So, calculating the distance between two points on Earth directly on a map is not the distance you will travel in real life. Because you may have to dig through the earth to get to your destination.</p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://www.axismaps.com/guide/general/map-projections/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">no map projection</a> preserves the distance between points on the map and does not distort it. So, a distance error will always be there. But for small distances, the error is so low that it is not worth it to go the extra mile (get it?) and calculate the exact distance.</p>
<p>We don’t want to calculate the Euclidean distance between the two points, but rather, the shortest distance across the surface.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/swlh/calculating-the-distance-between-two-points-on-earth-bac5cd50c840"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>