Distance Calculator

About this calculator

Definition:

The distance between two points in the coordinate plane or space is the line segment length that connects these two points.

Distance in the Coordinate Plane

To find the distance between points A (X1, y1) and B (x2, y2) in a plane, we usually use the Distance formula:

Example:

Find distance between points A(3, -4) and B(-1, 3)

Solution:

First we need to identify constant x1, y1, x2 and y2: x1 = 3, y1 = -4, x2 = -1 y2 = 3. Now we can apply above formula:

d(A,B) = √[(x2 - x1)^2 + (y2-y1)^2]
d(A,B) = √[(-1-3)^2 + (3-(-4))^2
d(A,B) = √[(-4)^2 + 7^2]
d(A,B) = √[16+49]
d(A,B) = √65

Distance in the Euclidean Space

The distance between points A (X1, y1, z1) and B (x2, y2, z2) in spcace is given by the formula:

Example:

Find distance between A(2, -1, 5) and B(3, 5, 2)

Solution:

In this example the constants are x1 = 2, y1 = -1, z1 = 5, x2 = 3, y2 = 5, z2 = 2. Now we can apply above formula:

d(A,B) = √[(x2 - x1)^2 + (y2-y1)^2 + (z2-z1)^2]
d(A,B) = √[(3-2)^2 + (5-(-1))^2 + (2-5)^2
d(A,B) = √[(1)^2 + 6^2 + (-3)^2]
d(A,B) = √[1 + 36 + 9]
d(A,B) = √46

Distance between points on sphere

The distance formula for two points on the Earth’s surface is:

d(A,B) = arccos[ sin(lat1) * sin(lat2) +cos(lat1) * cos(lat2) * cos(lon2 - lon1)] ∗6371

where lat1, lon1, lat2, and lon2 are their latitude and longitude coordinates.

Example:

Find distance between A(14.213, -38.481) and B(-2.13, 0.829)

Solution:

In this example the latitudes and longitudes: lat1 = 14.213, lon1 = -38.481, lat2 = -2.13, lon2 = 0.829. After substituting into the formula, we get:

d(A,B) = arccos[ sin(lat1) * sin(lat2) +cos(lat1) * cos(lat2) * cos(lon2 - lon1)] ∗6371
d(A,B) = arccos[ sin(14.213) * sin(-2.13) + cos(14.213) * cos(-2.13) * cos(0.829 + 38.481 )] ∗6371
d(A,B) = arccos[ - 0.2455 * 0.0371 + 0.9696 * 0.9993 * 0.7737] ∗6371
d(A,B) = arccos[ - 0.00910 + 0.7496]
d(A,B) = arccos[ 0.7405 ] ∗6371
d(A,B) = 5867.4