midpoint between two latitude and longitude

CrazyCoder picture CrazyCoder · Jan 11, 2011 · Viewed 33.2k times · Source

I am trying to convert the code snippet given in this http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html into java. But I am not getting same result as that of site. Here is my code to find the midpoint between two points where their latitudes and longitudes are given

midPoint(12.870672,77.658964,12.974831,77.60935);
    public static void midPoint(double lat1,double lon1,double lat2,double lon2)
    {
   double dLon = Math.toRadians(lon2-lon1);
        double Bx = Math.cos(lat2) * Math.cos(dLon);
        double By = Math.cos(lat2) * Math.sin(dLon);
        double lat3 = Math.atan2(Math.sin(lat1)+Math.sin(lat2),Math.sqrt( (Math.cos(lat1)+Bx)*(Math.cos(lat1)+Bx) + By*By) );
        double lon3 = lon1 + Math.atan2(By, Math.cos(lat1) + Bx);
        System.out.print(lat3 +" " + lon3 );
    }

I am not sure whethe dLon is correct or not. So please help me guys to figure it out. P.S.I need to find the latitude and longitude of the midpoint

Answer

dogbane picture dogbane · Jan 11, 2011

You need to convert to radians. Change it to the following:

public static void midPoint(double lat1,double lon1,double lat2,double lon2){

    double dLon = Math.toRadians(lon2 - lon1);

    //convert to radians
    lat1 = Math.toRadians(lat1);
    lat2 = Math.toRadians(lat2);
    lon1 = Math.toRadians(lon1);

    double Bx = Math.cos(lat2) * Math.cos(dLon);
    double By = Math.cos(lat2) * Math.sin(dLon);
    double lat3 = Math.atan2(Math.sin(lat1) + Math.sin(lat2), Math.sqrt((Math.cos(lat1) + Bx) * (Math.cos(lat1) + Bx) + By * By));
    double lon3 = lon1 + Math.atan2(By, Math.cos(lat1) + Bx);

    //print out in degrees
    System.out.println(Math.toDegrees(lat3) + " " + Math.toDegrees(lon3));
}