Distance Calculator

Calculate the great-circle distance between two coordinates using the Haversine formula. Get distance in miles, kilometers, and nautical miles.

This calculator finds the great-circle distance between two latitude/longitude coordinates using the Haversine formula, then reports the same distance in miles, kilometers, and nautical miles (Distance (Kilometers) is Distance (Miles) times 1.60934, and Distance (Nautical) is Distance (Miles) times 0.868976, so all three always move together in lockstep). Among the four coordinate inputs, Longitude 2 has the single biggest effect on every distance figure for the default New York-to-Los Angeles route: because the two cities sit close in latitude but far apart in longitude, a given percentage shift in Longitude 2 moves the calculated distance noticeably more than the same percentage shift in Latitude 1 or Latitude 2, which only nudge the result. Longitude 1 has a smaller, secondary effect. Initial Bearing is a separate calculation -- the compass heading you'd start flying on to follow the great-circle path -- and responds to all four coordinates in a more evenly balanced way than the distance figures do, since it depends on the relative angle between the two points rather than the raw gap between them. This tool assumes a spherical Earth of fixed radius (3,958.8 miles); it does not account for the WGS84 ellipsoid's actual flattening, so results can be off by a fraction of a percent versus a true geodesic calculation, and it reports straight-line great-circle distance, not actual driving or flight-routing distance.