omigodwhenover
gotta love the HSC...
i was looking through some maths in society papers...cuz i ran out of other ones, and they give the formula for a small circle radius as r=Rxcosxangular difference between the two points, where the big R is 6400km (the radius of a great circle)PC said:Provided they write the latitude co-ordinates first, then you'd be right!
The general convention all over the world is to write latitude first (that's North or South) and then longitude (East or West), but who knows what tricks they might throw in!
Also ... arc length formula.
Arc length = @/360 x 2πr
where r is the radius of the circle and @ is the angle of the sector.
So using your example, if A is (23°S,127°E) and B is (23°S,145°E) then A and B lie along the 23°S line of latitude, a small circle. The angle of the sector is 145 – 127 = 18°.
Now, because it's a small circle, you'd need to be told the radius of that small circle. You won't have to work it out for yourself. It's 5891 km.
So distance = @/360 x 2πr
= 18/360 x 2π x 5891
= 1850 km
Hope this helps.