How Does The Distance Calculation Formula Work?
Historically, the distance covered by a minute of latitude was defined to be one nautical mile. Today one nautical mile is defined as 1,852 meters. Since there are 60 minutes in a degree of latitude, one degree of latitude is approximately equal to 69.1 statue miles (60 minutes/degree * 1852 meters/minute * 100 cm/meter / 2.54 cm/inch / 12 inches/ft / 3 ft/yard / 1760 yards/statute mile). The distance covered by a minute of longitude varies depending on your latitude (it would be approximately one nautical mile at the equator and have no length at the poles). The approximation given on the distance calculation page assumes you are at 40 degrees of north or south latitude. The more precise formulation is the one just below it which adjusts the distance covered by the cosine of the latitude (the 57.3 is for conversion from degrees to radians). While these will give you the approximate distances covered by a degree of latitude and longitude, the rough distance calculation assumes a direct
