How to Measure Distances With Minutes & Seconds

Measure distances between points of known latitudes and longitudes.

The location of a point on Earth can be marked by its latitude and longitude. Both latitude and longitude can be specified in the "degrees:minutes.seconds" notation. You can use online calculator tools to measure the distance between two points specified in that notation.

Instructions

1. Launch a web browser by double-clicking on its desktop icon.

2. Navigate to an online service that provides latitude/longitude distance calculations. There are many options, most of them free. For example, for the National Weather Service calculator, navigate to the "Latitude/Longitude Distance Calculator" web page (see Resources).

3. Enter the latitude and longitude for both points into the web page, then direct the calculator to compute the estimated distance. For example, for the National Weather Service calculator, type the latitude and longitude for point 1, then the latitude and longitude for point 2 on the following line. Click "Compute."

4. Read the distance from the calculator's output. For example, for the National Weather Service calculator, the result will be under the "Distance" heading.

Tips & Warnings

• Other equivalent distance calculators are available on websites maintained by Northern Arizona University and Movable Type (see Resources).

Resources

• National Weather Service: Latitude/Longitude Distance Calculator
• Northern Arizona University: Latitude/Longitude Distance Calculation
• Movable Type Scripts: Calculate distance, bearing and more between Latitude/Longitude points