Is there a formula within Quickbase that would calculate the miles from one point to another if the latitude and longitude were supplied for two locations?

Actually, I am a member of the flat earth society and hence I am not bothered by false rumors that the earth is round. It is, in fact flat, and all distances are traveled how crows fly. Hence we do not need a formula which deals with the purely fictional hypothesis that the earth is round.

So, we just need to recall our grade 10 math and wake up those sleeping memories of Pythagoras.


In addition, I'm assuming, Kristi, based on the odds of where QuickBase is used, that you are in the USA and based on the odds again of US businesses, you probably only have records relating to a portion of the USA. if you tell me your general business area (States) I can confirm the correct estimate for the distance between Longitude Lines based on how far north or south your locations generally are.




Here is a formula I used to calculate and hence be able to rank the distances from a Patient to various clinics which offered the tests needed. You should be able to paste this in and just edit the four formula variables for the origin and destination Lats and Longs.


// In the USA, the typical distance between integer Longitude lines is about 53 miles. (these are the east / west coordinate) // They are further apart at the equator (69 miles) and approach zero at the North Pole.

// but we have few Patients at the north pole or the equator, so lets just call it 53.

// In the whole world, its 69 miles between integer Latitude lines.



// With credit to Pythagoras, we know that for a right angle triangle A^2 + B^2 = C^2. I will use (A^2 for A squared)

// We want to find the length of the C diagonal where A is the North South distance and B is the West East Distance

// Let LA1 be the LAtitude 1

// Let LO1 be the LOngitude 2

// Let LA2 be the LAtitude 1

// Let LA2 be the LOngitude 2





// So C^2= A^2 + B^2

// C = SQRT (A^2 + B^2)

// C = SQRT ((69*(LA1-LA2))^2 + (53*(LO1-LO2))^2)

// note that to take a square root you raise it to the power of 1/2 or 0.5



var number OriginLat = [Patient Zip Code - Latitude];

var number OriginLong = [Patient Zip Code - Longitude];

var number DestLat = [Consultant Zip Code - Latitude];

var number DestLong = [Consultant Zip Code - Longitude];





var number Distance =

Round(

((69*($OriginLat - $DestLat))^2 + (53*($OriginLong - $DestLong))^2)^0.5

);



If($OriginLat =0 or $DestLat=0,0,$Distance)