rails3 map application,what's the scope about latitude & longitude - ruby-on-rails-3

currently i work a geo-relevent app use google map,
but i don't have much knowledge about Geography,so i want to ask what't latitude & longitude
scope min to max
e.g
lat 37.314
long 40.7302

min/max values are:
Latitude: -90 to 90
Equator is 0. South Pole is -90 and North Pole is 90
Longitude: -180 to 180
Prime Meridian (Greenwich, England) is 0
International Dateline is 180

Related

CoreLocation - what do the latitude and longitude numbers actually represent

I have :
+37.785834 (lat)
-122.406417 (long)
The LAT positive means North of the equator
The LONG negative means to the West of 0
So far so good.
But what does the number represent exactly ? For example suppose I added 0.000001 to the LAT what would this actually represent ? That I have moved in some Northerly direction by 1 metre, for example or....
If I understand what these numbers actually represent then I can use them intelligently.
Longitude and latitude are measured in degrees. The latitude ranges from -90° (south pole) to +90° (north pole). The longitude ranges from -180° to +180°.

Compute the length difference out of a longitude latitude double

Given two gps coordinates the length difference can be calculated by using the haversine formula. But what about the other way around:
Compute the length difference in meter for a given Lat/Long double
Compute the Lat/Long double for a given length in meters
I know this is not exactly possible since it differs from the point on the earth you are, but is it possible to approximate this or something similiar? This does not have to be very precise.
If your displacements aren't too great (less than a few KM), use the quick and dirty estimate that 111,111 meters in the y direction is 1 degree (of latitude) and 111,111 * cos(latitude) meters in the x direction is 1 degree (of longitude).
Alternatively:
//Position, decimal degrees
lat = 51.0
lon = 0.0
//Earth’s radius, sphere
R=6378137
//offsets in meters
distanceNorth = 100
distanceEast = 100
//Coordinate offsets in radians
dLat = distanceNorth/R
dLon = distanceEast/(R*Cos(Pi*lat/180))
//OffsetPosition, decimal degrees
latO = lat + dLat * 180/Pi
lonO = lon + dLon * 180/Pi
This should return:
latO = 51,00089832
lonO = 0,001427437

How can I create SQL Server Geography polygons that are of a specific size?

I want to create a group of polygons for a city that are 80km x 80km. Given a starting Lat and Long, my thought is I can add 80km to that point so that I get 4 points to create the polygon.
(x,y) -> (x+80km, y) -> (x+80km, y+80km) -> (x, y+80km) -> (x,y)
Where I'm having difficulty is finding a way to calculate the point +80km. I've found the SQL Server Spatial Tools and there is a function
SqlGeography LocateAlongGeog(SqlGeography g, double distance)
But so far I haven't been able to figure out how to use it. I will continue to play with this but if there are any other approaches I can take, or if anyone knows how to properly use this function, I'd be grateful.
Longitude is a "great circle" measure, i.e. if you draw a circle representing a particular longitude round the Earth, it's always a circle whose centre is the centre of the Earth - so to circumnavigate the Earth at a constant longitude, you always travel the same distance:
2 * PI * 6378 /* 6378 is the radius of the Earth in km */
So, moving North (i.e travelling along the same longitude) 80 km will increase your latitude by:
360 * 80 / (2 * PI * 6378)
Latitude is trickier cos the distance travelled when you circumnavigate the Earth at the same latitude changes depending on the latitude at which you're travelling: however, the formula is simple and I looked it up at: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/env99/env086.htm
2 * PI * 6378 * COS(LAT) /* where LAT is your Latitude */
So, if you are at latitude LAT, and move 80km East, you will increase your longitude by:
360 * 80 / (2 * PI * 6378 * COS(LAT))
Couple of things to note:
a) 6378 is only accurate to the nearest km
b) The East/West between your two Northerly points will not be precisely 80km - not significantly different for Latitudes between about 80 degrees North and 80 degrees South - as long as you're not looking for high-precision pinpoint accuracy (which I'm guessing with base measurements of 80 km you're not) it'll do just nicely (and point nicelt at Bing or Google, say)
c) SQL calculates trigonometry functions using radians not degrees - so in SQL your cosine will need to be:
COS(PI * LAT / 180)
HTH and makes some sort of sense

How to find latitude and longitude

I have latitude and longitude of a point.I have to find out the latitude and longitude of another point from a relative distance from the known point.For example point A has some location with latitude and longitude.What is the latitude and longitude after moving 1000m south and 500m west from point A.Is there any direct equation to find this? Thanks in advance
Note the accepted answer is basically the flat earth projection equations:
x = δlon * EarthRadius * cos( lat )
y = δlat * EarthRadius
For better accuracy over larger distances, you should compute the final lat/lon from a typical bearing/range calculation. See the section Destination point given distance and bearing from start point at this website: http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html
Instead of looking up an equation you can calculate as follows. Let R be the radius of the Earth. Let a be the current latitude and b be the current longitude. Then if you move δx metres east (negative for west) then δy metres south, calculating the new longitude can be done as follows.
Intersecting a horizontal plane with the Earth at the current latitude will give you a circle of radius R*cos(a). So to convert δx to the change in longitude, you get something like
δlong = δx * 2π / (2π * R * cos(a)) = δx / (R * cos (a))
The change in latitude is easier, since it doesn't depend on the current position. You're always moving around a great circle through the two poles. Then δlat = δy / R. (Of course you need to mod out by 2 π at some point).

Oracle SQL query or function to cluster geographic data

I have a table containing geographic data and I want to group rows on the proximity of the X and Y coordinates. So, given an offset, n, and a table with columns X and Y, I want to group rows where ABS(row1.X - row2.X) < n, with a count of the number of rows in the group. Is this possible with SQL or do I need a function?
How big is your spatial range ? How big is your data set ? How accurate do you need ?
This is relevant because, if they are close, you don't have to worry about the curvature of the Earth.
Degrees of latitude are parallel so the distance between each degree remains almost constant but since degrees of longitude are farthest apart at the equator and converge at the poles, their distance varies greatly.
Each degree of latitude is approximately 69 miles (111 kilometers) apart. The range varies (due to the earth's slightly ellipsoid shape) from 68.703 miles (110.567 km) at the equator to 69.407 (111.699 km) at the poles. This is convenient because each minute (1/60th of a degree) is approximately one mile.
A degree of longitude is widest at the equator at 69.172 miles (111.321) and gradually shrinks to zero at the poles. At 40° north or south the distance between a degree of longitude is 53 miles (85 km).
The other aspect is, if Fred is 4 miles from Bill and Bill is 4 miles from Tom, the distance between Fred and Tom might be 8 miles. If your proximity threshold is 5 miles, Bill and Fred are in the same group, Bill and Tom are in the same group, but Fred and Tom aren't.
The following query might give you a useful start though:
select abs(abs(a.lat) - abs(b.lat)),abs(abs(a.lon) - abs(b.lon)),
sdo_geom.sdo_distance(a.geom, b.geom, 0.005,'unit=kilometer') dist_km
from
(select sdo_geometry(2001,8314,sdo_point_type(33,151, null), null,null) geom, 33 lat, 151 lon from dual) a,
(select sdo_geometry(2001,8314,sdo_point_type(34,151, null), null,null) geom, 34 lat, 151 lon from dual) b
Do you have oracle spatial? If so there are a number of built in functions to handle this for you. If not - you'll need a function to determine catographic distances (and then group off of that). I recall seing a SO question on how to write such a function last week. (There are actually a few along these lines)
How to limit a MySQL Distance Query
Best bet. Use the spatial extensions. They'll perform much better.