Expert: Bobby Soltani - 9/16/2004

Question
On many maps the Latitude and Longitude lines are featured.  How are these used to calculate X miles, etc., from a certain point?

Non-student asking.

Thanks for your time and assistance.

Answer
Hi Randy,

The answer to this is somewhat complex.  The distance in longitude varies depending on how far your are from the equator.  Once you know the distances for each degree at the specific point, you can use the pythagorean theorem to solve for the distance.  I know, this is not a very good explanation but it is hard when I can't draw you any pictures.  My suggestion is to search www.google.com for:
longitude, latitude, calculation, and distance.