For short distances the Simple Spherical algorithm should give sufficiently accurate results, however there's little to be gained by writing your own Simple Spherical test rather than using the Haversine code that you can just copy from Pamela's article.
What you can't do, except in special circumstances, is say that a distance is X degrees of longitude and Y degrees of latitude and then try to use Pythagoras to say that the distance is sqrt(X^2 + Y^2). Because degrees of lat and lng represent different distances unless you're at the equator. [You could use Haversine or Simple Spherical to estimate how many miles correspond to a degree of longitude at your location, convert everything to miles and then use Pythagoras, but that ends up being rather complicated.] -- Mike Williams http://econym.org.uk/gmap -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-api?hl=.
