I have a point expressed in lat/long
Position louvreMuseum = new Position( 48.861622, 2.337474 );
and I have a radius value expressed in meters. I need to check if another point, also expressed in lat/long, is inside the circle.
If I were on a flat surface I can simply use the formula
(x - center_x)^2 + (y - center_y)^2 <= radius^2
as deeply explained in these SO answer.
However as per the latitude/longitude usage I can not use that formula because of the spherical nature of the planet.
How can I calculate a distance from any given point to the center to be compared with the radius?
Function to calculate the distance between two coordinates (converted to C# from this answer):
double GetDistance(double lat1, double lon1, double lat2, double lon2)
{
var R = 6371; // Radius of the earth in km
var dLat = ToRadians(lat2-lat1);
var dLon = ToRadians(lon2-lon1);
var a =
Math.Sin(dLat/2) * Math.Sin(dLat/2) +
Math.Cos(ToRadians(lat1)) * Math.Cos(ToRadians(lat2)) *
Math.Sin(dLon/2) * Math.Sin(dLon/2);
var c = 2 * Math.Atan2(Math.Sqrt(a), Math.Sqrt(1-a));
var d = R * c; // Distance in km
return d;
}
double ToRadians(double deg)
{
return deg * (Math.PI/180);
}
If the distance between the two points is less than the radius, then it is within the circle.