Find the shortest distance from Chicago, latitude 4150'N, longitude 8737'W to Honolulu, latitude 2118'N, longitude 15750'W. Round
Question:
Find the shortest distance from Chicago, latitude 41°50'N, longitude 87°37'W to Honolulu, latitude 21°18'N, longitude 157°50'W. Round your answer to the nearest mile.
The shortest distance between two points on Earth's surface can be determined from the latitude and longitude of the two locations. For example, if location 1 has (lat, lon) = (α1, β1) and location 2 has (lat, lon) = (α2, β2), the shortest distance between the two locations is approximately
d = rcos-1[(cos α1 cos β1 cos α2 cos β2) + (cos α1 sin β1 cos α2 sin β2) + (sin α1 sin α2)]
where r = radius of Earth ≈ 3960 miles and the inverse cosine function is expressed in radians Also N latitude and E longitude are positive angles while S latitude and W longitude are negative angles.
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