GGY 168

Distance
Barend vd Merwe
1 September 2023

1 Distance
1.1 Map scale
Any given map is considerable smaller than the surface area of the Earth that it is intended to represent (Singh,
2007). Therefore, it is necessary to indicate, on the map, the appropriate adjustment that is needed to convert
distances measured on the map to the appropriate distances on the ground. The instrument used to achieve this is
the map scale. Map scale can be communicated in one of three ways (Singh, 2007): it can be stated in words, it
can be indicated by a fraction, or it can be shown graphically as a line divided into segments.

1.1.1 Stated in words

An example of this is ”1 cm to 500 m”. This is interpreted as 1 cm on the map is equal to 500 m on the ground.

1.1.2 Stated as a fraction

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Occasionally referred to as a representative fraction (Singh, 2007), this is commonly reported as 10000 . The numer-
ator indicates the distance on the map while the denominator indicates the distance on the ground. In other words,
one unit on the map (e.g. 1 cm) is equalt to 10 000 cm on the ground. An alternative way of representing this is
1 : 10000.

1.1.3 Stated as a graphic

Some maps express scale in the form of a line that is subdivided, e.g:

0 20 40 60 80 100 km
The length of the scale bar corresponds to the distances that can be measured on the map, while the numbers
on the scale bar correspond to the distances on the ground. One notable advantage of using a scale bar is that,
provided the image is scaled correctly, the reported scale adjusts along with an increase/decrease in the size of the
original map1 .

1.2 Great Circle Distance

The great circle distance is the shortest distance between two points that are located on a sphere. It makes use of
the coordinates of the two points (i.e. their latitude and longitude) to calculate the distance. The formula is:

cos D = (sin ϕA sin ϕB ) + (cos ϕA cos ϕB cos λ)

where D is the great circle distance, ϕA and ϕB is the latitude of point A and point B respectively, and λ is the
absolute difference in longitude between point A and point B.
1 This property is not present in the other forms of reporting scale which means that for any change to the size of the map, the scale

has to be recalculated.

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1.3 Worked example: Measuring distance on a map.
1.3.1 Scale stated in words
Measure the ground distance between point A and point B.

Scale: 1 cm to 100 m

1. Draw a line between A and B.

2. Measure the length of the line in the map units. In this case, the length is 6.5 cm.

3. If 1 cm is 100 m, then 2 cm is 200 m, 10 cm is 1000 m etc. Therefore, it follows that 6.5 cm would equal
6.5 × 100m = 650m. This distance between A and B is therefore 650 m.

1.3.2 Scale stated as a fraction

What is the ground distance between point A and point B? Express this distance in meters (m).

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 A

Scale: 1 : 500

1. Construct a line between A and B.

2. Measure the distance between point A and point B. In this case, it is 7.8 cm.
3. Since the scale is 1 : 500 it means that 1 cm equals 500 cm and 10 cm equals 5000 cm. Therefore, 7.8 cm equals
500 × 7.8 = 3900cm.

4. But, since the question asks for the final distance in meters (m), the distance in centimeters needs to be
converted. Therefore, the distance between point A and point B is 39 m.

1.3.3 Stated as a graphic

What is the ground distance between point A and point B? Express this distance in kilometers (km).

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 B

0 10 20 30 40 50 km

1. Construct a line between point A and point B.

2. Measure the distance between point A and point B. In this case, the distance is 5.1 cm.
3. Measure the length of the scale bar. In this case the length of the scale bar is 5.1 cm. This means that 5.1 cm
on the map represents 50 km on the ground. Using this information, the fraction scale can be calculated2 :

5.1 1
=
5000000 x
5.1x = 5000000
5000000
x=
5.1
= 980392.2

4. The calculation shows that 1 cm on the map is equal to 980 392.2 cm on the ground. Since the distance
between point A and point B on the map is 3.1 cm, this means the distance between point A and point B on
the ground is 3 039 215.7 cm.

5. Since the question requires the distance in kilometers (km) convert the ground distance from centimeters (cm)
to km. The ground distance between point A and point B is therefore 30.4 km.

1.4 Worked Example: Great Circle Distance

Calculate the great circle distance between Pretoria (25.7479◦ S, 28.2293◦ E) and Cape Town (33.9249◦ S, 18.4241◦ E).
2 Remember to have the units in the denominator and the numeratir equal

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 cos D = (sin ϕA sin ϕB ) + (cos ϕA cos ϕB cos λ)
= (sin (25.7479) sin (33.9249)) + (cos (25.7479) cos (33.9249) cos (|28.2293 − 18.4241|))
= (sin (25.7479) sin (33.9249)) + (cos (25.7479) cos (33.9249) cos (9.8052))
= 0.2424 + 0.7365
= 0.9789
D = cos−1 (0.9789)
= 11.7909◦

The answer is in degrees. Essentially, the distance between the points can be determined by calculating the
length of a circular arc that has a an angle equal to the one calculated and a radius equal to that of the Earth3 .
This is represented by the diagram below:

PTA

11.7909◦

radius
CPT

In this case, following Maling (1989), the radius of the earth is taken as 6371.11 km. Using this, the length of
the arc between Pretoria and Cape Town can be calculated as:

 π 
AB = θ r
180  π 
= 11.7909 × × 6371.11
180
= 1311.1km

Therefore, the great circle distance between Pretoria and Cape Town is 1311.1 km.

3 Because the Earth is not a sphere, this calculated distance will not be exact and is only approximately correct.

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References
Maling, D. (1989). Measurements from maps: Principles and methods of cartometry, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

Singh, G. (2007). Map work and practical geography, fourth enlarged edn, Vikas Publishing House, New Dehli.