这段Lua代码改编自维基百科和Robert Lipe的GPSbabel工具:

local EARTH_RAD = 6378137.0 
  -- earth's radius in meters (official geoid datum, not 20,000km / pi)

local radmiles = EARTH_RAD*100.0/2.54/12.0/5280.0;
  -- earth's radius in miles

local multipliers = {
  radians = 1, miles = radmiles, mi = radmiles, feet = radmiles * 5280,
  meters = EARTH_RAD, m = EARTH_RAD, km = EARTH_RAD / 1000, 
  degrees = 360 / (2 * math.pi), min = 60 * 360 / (2 * math.pi)
}

function gcdist(pt1, pt2, units) -- return distance in radians or given units
  --- this formula works best for points close together or antipodal
  --- rounding error strikes when distance is one-quarter Earth's circumference
  --- (ref: wikipedia Great-circle distance)
  if not pt1.radians then pt1 = rad(pt1) end
  if not pt2.radians then pt2 = rad(pt2) end
  local sdlat = sin((pt1.lat - pt2.lat) / 2.0);
  local sdlon = sin((pt1.lon - pt2.lon) / 2.0);
  local res = sqrt(sdlat * sdlat + cos(pt1.lat) * cos(pt2.lat) * sdlon * sdlon);
  res = res > 1 and 1 or res < -1 and -1 or res
  res = 2 * asin(res);
  if units then return res * assert(multipliers[units])
  else return res
  end
end

我猜你想让它沿着地球的曲率运动。你的两点和地心在一个平面上。地球的中心是这个平面上的圆心，这两个点(大致)在这个圆的周长上。由此你可以通过求一点到另一点的角度来计算距离。

如果点的高度不一样，或者如果你需要考虑地球不是一个完美的球体，这就有点困难了。

这是“Henry Vilinskiy”为MySQL和km改编的版本:

CREATE FUNCTION `CalculateDistanceInKm`(
  fromLatitude float,
  fromLongitude float,
  toLatitude float, 
  toLongitude float
) RETURNS float
BEGIN
  declare distance float;

  select 
    6367 * ACOS(
            round(
              COS(RADIANS(90-fromLatitude)) *
                COS(RADIANS(90-toLatitude)) +
                SIN(RADIANS(90-fromLatitude)) *
                SIN(RADIANS(90-toLatitude)) *
                COS(RADIANS(fromLongitude-toLongitude))
              ,15)
            )
    into distance;

  return  round(distance,3);
END;

计算两个坐标之间的纬度和经度的距离，包括一个Javascript实现。

西部和南部的位置是负的。 记住，分和秒是60度，所以S31 30'是-31.50度。

别忘了把角度转换成弧度。许多语言都有这个功能。或者它是一个简单的计算:弧度=角度* PI / 180。

function degreesToRadians(degrees) {
  return degrees * Math.PI / 180;
}

function distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {
  var earthRadiusKm = 6371;

  var dLat = degreesToRadians(lat2-lat1);
  var dLon = degreesToRadians(lon2-lon1);

  lat1 = degreesToRadians(lat1);
  lat2 = degreesToRadians(lat2);

  var a = Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) +
          Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.cos(lat1) * Math.cos(lat2); 
  var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a)); 
  return earthRadiusKm * c;
}

下面是一些用法的例子:

distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(0,0,0,0)  // Distance between same 
                                              // points should be 0
0

distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(51.5, 0, 38.8, -77.1) // From London
                                                          // to Arlington
5918.185064088764

Scala版本

  def deg2rad(deg: Double) = deg * Math.PI / 180.0

  def rad2deg(rad: Double) = rad / Math.PI * 180.0

  def getDistanceMeters(lat1: Double, lon1: Double, lat2: Double, lon2: Double) = {
    val theta = lon1 - lon2
    val dist = Math.sin(deg2rad(lat1)) * Math.sin(deg2rad(lat2)) + Math.cos(deg2rad(lat1)) *
      Math.cos(deg2rad(lat2)) * Math.cos(deg2rad(theta))
    Math.abs(
      Math.round(
        rad2deg(Math.acos(dist)) * 60 * 1.1515 * 1.609344 * 1000)
    )
  }

在Python中，你可以使用geopy库使用WGS84椭球来计算测地线距离:

from geopy.distance import geodesic
newport_ri = (41.49008, -71.312796)
cleveland_oh = (41.499498, -81.695391)
print(geodesic(newport_ri, cleveland_oh).km)