这是一个简单的PHP函数，它将给出一个非常合理的近似值(误差小于+/-1%)。

<?php
function distance($lat1, $lon1, $lat2, $lon2) {

    $pi80 = M_PI / 180;
    $lat1 *= $pi80;
    $lon1 *= $pi80;
    $lat2 *= $pi80;
    $lon2 *= $pi80;

    $r = 6372.797; // mean radius of Earth in km
    $dlat = $lat2 - $lat1;
    $dlon = $lon2 - $lon1;
    $a = sin($dlat / 2) * sin($dlat / 2) + cos($lat1) * cos($lat2) * sin($dlon / 2) * sin($dlon / 2);
    $c = 2 * atan2(sqrt($a), sqrt(1 - $a));
    $km = $r * $c;

    //echo '<br/>'.$km;
    return $km;
}
?>

如前所述;地球不是一个球体。它就像马克·麦奎尔决定用来练习的一个很旧很旧的棒球——到处都是凹痕和凸起。简单的计算(像这样)把它当作一个球体。

不同的方法或多或少的精确取决于你在这个不规则的卵形上的位置以及你的点之间的距离(它们越近，绝对误差范围就越小)。你的期望越精确，计算就越复杂。

更多信息:维基百科地理距离

要计算球体上两点之间的距离，你需要做大圆计算。

如果你需要将距离重新投影到平面上，MapTools中有许多C/ c++库可以帮助你进行地图投影。要做到这一点，你需要不同坐标系的投影字符串。

你可能还会发现MapWindow是一个可视化点的有用工具。此外，由于它是开源的，它是如何使用project.dll库的有用指南，它似乎是核心的开源投影库。

下面是移植到Java的已接受的答案实现，以备任何人需要。

package com.project529.garage.util;


/**
 * Mean radius.
 */
private static double EARTH_RADIUS = 6371;

/**
 * Returns the distance between two sets of latitudes and longitudes in meters.
 * <p/>
 * Based from the following JavaScript SO answer:
 * http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27928/calculate-distance-between-two-latitude-longitude-points-haversine-formula,
 * which is based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haversine_formula (error rate: ~0.55%).
 */
public double getDistanceBetween(double lat1, double lon1, double lat2, double lon2) {
    double dLat = toRadians(lat2 - lat1);
    double dLon = toRadians(lon2 - lon1);

    double a = Math.sin(dLat / 2) * Math.sin(dLat / 2) +
            Math.cos(toRadians(lat1)) * Math.cos(toRadians(lat2)) *
                    Math.sin(dLon / 2) * Math.sin(dLon / 2);
    double c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1 - a));
    double d = EARTH_RADIUS * c;

    return d;
}

public double toRadians(double degrees) {
    return degrees * (Math.PI / 180);
}

Java实现在根据哈弗辛公式

double calculateDistance(double latPoint1, double lngPoint1, 
                         double latPoint2, double lngPoint2) {
    if(latPoint1 == latPoint2 && lngPoint1 == lngPoint2) {
        return 0d;
    }

    final double EARTH_RADIUS = 6371.0; //km value;

    //converting to radians
    latPoint1 = Math.toRadians(latPoint1);
    lngPoint1 = Math.toRadians(lngPoint1);
    latPoint2 = Math.toRadians(latPoint2);
    lngPoint2 = Math.toRadians(lngPoint2);

    double distance = Math.pow(Math.sin((latPoint2 - latPoint1) / 2.0), 2) 
            + Math.cos(latPoint1) * Math.cos(latPoint2)
            * Math.pow(Math.sin((lngPoint2 - lngPoint1) / 2.0), 2);
    distance = 2.0 * EARTH_RADIUS * Math.asin(Math.sqrt(distance));

    return distance; //km value
}

下面是另一个转换为Ruby代码的代码:

include Math
#Note: from/to = [lat, long]

def get_distance_in_km(from, to)
  radians = lambda { |deg| deg * Math.PI / 180 }
  radius = 6371 # Radius of the earth in kilometer
  dLat = radians[to[0]-from[0]]
  dLon = radians[to[1]-from[1]]

  cosines_product = Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) + Math.cos(radians[from[0]]) * Math.cos(radians[to[1]]) * Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2)

  c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(cosines_product), Math.sqrt(1-cosines_product)) 
  return radius * c # Distance in kilometer
end

计算距离——尤其是大距离——的主要挑战之一是解释地球的曲率。如果地球是平的，计算两点之间的距离就会像计算直线一样简单!哈弗辛公式包括一个常数(下面是R变量)，它表示地球的半径。根据你是用英里还是公里来测量，它分别等于3956英里或6367公里。 基本公式是:

Dlon = lon2 - lon1 dat = lat2 - lat1 = (sin (dlat / 2)) ^ 2 + cos (lat1) * cos (lat2) * (sin (dlon / 2)) ^ 2 C = 2 * atan2(√(a)，√(1-a)) distance = R * c(其中R为地球半径) R = 6367公里OR 3956英里

     lat1, lon1: The Latitude and Longitude of point 1 (in decimal degrees)
     lat2, lon2: The Latitude and Longitude of point 2 (in decimal degrees)
     unit: The unit of measurement in which to calculate the results where:
     'M' is statute miles (default)
     'K' is kilometers
     'N' is nautical miles

样本

function distance(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2, unit) {
    try {
        var radlat1 = Math.PI * lat1 / 180
        var radlat2 = Math.PI * lat2 / 180
        var theta = lon1 - lon2
        var radtheta = Math.PI * theta / 180
        var dist = Math.sin(radlat1) * Math.sin(radlat2) + Math.cos(radlat1) * Math.cos(radlat2) * Math.cos(radtheta);
        dist = Math.acos(dist)
        dist = dist * 180 / Math.PI
        dist = dist * 60 * 1.1515
        if (unit == "K") {
            dist = dist * 1.609344
        }
        if (unit == "N") {
            dist = dist * 0.8684
        }
        return dist
    } catch (err) {
        console.log(err);
    }
}