Great Circle Distance question

Question

I am familiar with the formula to calculate the Great Circle Distance between two points.

i.e.

Answer 1

It would be harder to back out the Haversine fomula, then generate your own, I would think.

First the angle generated from the Earth core by traveling a "straight" line on the surface (you think it is straight, but it is curving).

Angle in Radians = Arc Length / radius. Angle = ArcLen/6371 km

Latitude should be easy, just the "vertical" (north/south) component of your angle.

Lat1 + Cos(bearing) * Angle

Longitude divisions vary by latitude. So that becomes harder. You would use:

Sin(bearing) * Angle (with East defined as negative) to find the angle in longitude direction, but converting back to actual longitude at that latitude would be more difficult.