WHAT IS THE DISTANCE FROM LONDON TO PARIS

AS THE CROW FLIES?


Victor M. Ponce

Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering

San Diego State University, San Diego, California


12 November 2023

ABSTRACT. We use the online calculator ONLINEGEODISTANCETWO to determine the distance between Heathrow airport, in London, United Kingdom, and Charles de Gaulle airport, near Paris, France. This online tool may be used to determine the geodistance between any two locations on the Earth's surface, once the geographical coordinates are known.

1.  INTRODUCTION

In this article, we demonstrate the use of the online calculator ONLINEGEODISTANCETWO to evaluate the distance, as the crow flies, between two arbitrarily selected geographical locations A and B on the Earth's surface, each properly identified by their respective coordinates: Latitude and longitude. We describe the use of the online calculator by means of a clear example.

2.  PROCEDURE

The procedure consists of the following steps:

  1. Select the geographical locations A and B.

  2. Find the coordinates of point A. You may want to use Google Earth® to accomplish this task.

  3. Find the coordinates of point B. You may want to use Google Earth® to accomplish this task.

  4. Enter the coordinate data for points A and B into the online calculator ONLINEGEODISTANCETWO.

  5. Run the online calculator to find the (spheroidal) geodistance between points A and B.

3.  EXAMPLE

This section provides an example of the use of online_geodistance_two. The objective is to calculate the distance between Heathrow airport, in London, United Kingdom, and Charles de Gaulle airport, near Paris, France. The geographical coordinates are obtained using Google Earth as follows:

A. Heathrow airport:  Latitude 51° 28' 04" N, Longitude 0° 27' 18" W.

B. Charles de Gaulle airport:  Latitude 49° 00' 28" N, Longitude 02° 33' 18" E.

The spheroidal geodistance between Heathrow (London) and Charles de Gaulle (Paris) airports is: 311,449.717 m, or 311.450 km.

[Click on top of figure to expand]

Fig. 3  Output from online_geodistance_two.

4.  CONCLUDING REMARKS

We have used the online calculator ONLINEGEODISTANCETWO to determine the distance between Heathrow airport, in London, United Kingdom, and Charles de Gaulle airport, near Paris, France. This online tool may be used to determine the geodistance between any two locations on the Earth's surface, once the geographical coordinates are known.

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