Distance Calculation latitude longitude global database lists. Because of the near-spherical shape of the Earth (technically an oblate spheroid) , calculating an accurate distance between two points requires the use of spherical geometry and trigonometric math functions.
However, you can calculate an approximate distance using much simpler math functions. For many applications the approximate distance calculation provides sufficient accuracy with much less complexity. The following approximate distance calculations are relatively simple, but can produce distance errors of 10 percent of more. Maps - Satellite, Street, Theme Maps - National Geographic. Yelp.