In the modern world, technical developments related to satellite navigation are widespread. Navigation systems allow you not to lose orientation in an unfamiliar place, to find the best way from point to point, find the nearest store, determine the distance from one point to another.
What are GPS coordinates
Using coordinates, they determine the location of an object on the globe. Coordinates are indicated in degrees in latitude and longitude. Latitudes are measured from the equator line on both sides. Latitudes are positive in the Northern Hemisphere and negative in the Southern Hemisphere. Longitude is measured from the initial meridian either to the east or to the west, respectively, either east longitude or west longitude is obtained.
According to the generally accepted position, the prime meridian is the meridian that passes through the old Greenwich Observatory in Greenwich. The geographic coordinates of the location can be obtained using a GPS navigator. This device receives signals from the satellite positioning system in the WGS-84 coordinate system, which is the same for the whole world.
Navigator models differ in manufacturers, functionality and interface. Currently, some models of cell phones have built-in GPS-navigators. But any model can record and store the coordinates of the point.
Distance between GPS coordinates
To solve practical and theoretical problems in some industries, it is necessary to be able to determine the distances between points by their coordinates. There are several ways to do this. The canonical form of representation of geographic coordinates: degrees, minutes, seconds.
For example, you can determine the distance between the following coordinates: point # 1 - latitude 55 ° 45′07 ″ N, longitude 37 ° 36′56 ″ E; point No. 2 - latitude 58 ° 00′02 ″ N, longitude 102 ° 39′42 ″ E
The easiest way is to use an online calculator to calculate the distance between two points. In the browser search engine, you must set the following search parameters: online calculator for calculating the distance between two coordinates. In the online calculator, latitude and longitude values are entered into the query fields for the first and second coordinates. When calculating the online calculator, the result was 3,800,619 m.
The next method is more laborious, but also more visual. You must use any available mapping or navigation software. The programs in which you can create points by coordinates and measure the distances between them include the following applications: BaseCamp (a modern analogue of MapSource), Google Earth, SAS. Planet.
All of the above programs are available to any network user. For example, to calculate the distance between two coordinates in Google Earth, you need to create two placemarks with the coordinates of the first point and the second point. Then, using the Ruler tool, you need to connect the first and second marks with a line, the program will automatically display the measurement result and show the path on the satellite image of the Earth.
In the case of the example above, the Google Earth program returned the result - the length of the distance between point # 1 and point # 2 is 3,817,353 m.
Why there is an error in determining the distance
All distance calculations between coordinates are based on arc length calculations. The radius of the Earth is involved in calculating the arc length. But since the shape of the Earth is close to an oblate ellipsoid, the radius of the Earth at certain points is different. To calculate the distance between the coordinates, the average value of the Earth's radius is taken, which gives an error in the measurement. The greater the measured distance, the greater the error.
