Is There An Easy Way To Measure Distance

[+The Crazy H Crew]

I was wondering if there was an easier way to measure distance from one cache to another, or one set of coordinates to another? I've been doing it in my gps, but it is a pain.

 

I don't want to write up a whole cache, only to have it rejected because it is too close to another cache.

 

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

TCHC

[+BigFurryMonster]

I use Mapsource (PC software that came with my GPS package) for this.

I'm sure other applications can do this, too.

 

Have you looked at the 'Routing' function of your GPS?

[+Indotguy]

I was wondering if there was an easier way to measure distance from one cache to another, or one set of coordinates to another? I've been doing it in my gps, but it is a pain.

 

I don't want to write up a whole cache, only to have it rejected because it is too close to another cache.

 

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

TCHC

Check out the freeware called GeoCal. It caculates distances from coordinates, converts coordinates to other formats and does projections, all in a small and easy to use package.

[+Teamhawaii1981 & blueicyrose]

You could do it three ways with the new GE features

 

Use kml networking and....

Download the two .loc files, import them and...

Download a PQ to GE and...

 

...open up Tools > Measure > Line (or path) > draw a line and it will tell you the distance.

 

From what I understand you will get a more accurate reading if you download the points than if you network them.

[+briansnat]

I think the easiest way is to use my GPS. No calculations or anything. I just look and see what's near. Of course you need all the local caches on your unit, but that's easy enough with pocket queries.

[+The Leprechauns]

Surface Distance Between Two Points of Latitude and Longitude.

 

A web page that does what its title says.

[markandlynn]

If you want the distance from a set of known co ordinates to a cache go here type in the lat and long and the distance to the nearest cache will come up.

[+The Jester]

Load a PQ into GSAK, enter a new waypoint with the co-ords you want, set that as centerpoint, and sort by distance.

 

Or load all the nearby caches in your GPSr, stand at the co-ords and look at the nearest list.

[CacheNCarryMA]

If the caches are near each other or in a cache-sparse area (and you only need accuracy to the tenth of a mile), you can go to the web page for Cache A and click on "Find... all nearby caches" to the left of the map. Browse through the results, looking for Cache B.

[+_BBQ_]

I use Google Earth alot for finding and plotting measurements like that.

[+martinell]

Isn't there a rough equation that will let you get close to the actual distance though?

[+geognerd]

The "length" of a degree of longitude is not constant, so no. The farther you are away from the equator, the "shorter" a degree of longitude (W or E coord) is.

 

Another recently active topic here in the forums compares UTM to lat-long. UTM uses meters as the coordinate unit. This would allow you to do a simple pythagorean calculation of distance using the two coordinate pairs.

 

Edit: Added paragraph about UTM.

Edited October 21, 2005 by geognerd

[+DreadPirateRoberts]

You can estimate distance between degrees of longitude at a given latitude with the following formula:

 

d = (pi / 180) * R * cos(lat)

 

The latitude is expressed in decimal degrees. R is the radius of the earth, which is 3,963.1676 miles. (thanks, google: http://www.google.com/search?q=radius+of+the+earth+in+mi ).

 

Doing the multiplication, you get a slightly simpler:

 

d = 69.17 * cos(lat)

 

The distance between two degrees of latitude is mostly constant, with some variation since the earth is not a sphere. It varies between 68.7 and 69.4 miles.

 

Maybe that can at least be a starting point for you.

[+whatevah.com]

I typically use Google Earth for distances, since I can use the path option instead of a straight line (if I want).

[+Wander Lost]

A cache shouldn't be placed with just one trip and one set of coords.

 

The last cache I hid I got at least a dozen sets of coordinates on different days with different gps units. I scouted the area before hiding the cache, ran the coords through the gc.com search engine and plotted nearby caches on a map. Only after I was certain that my spot wouldn't be too close to any other cache did I actually go hide the container.