[Mapserver-users] distance from lat-long

[Changqing Zhou]

Hi, I feel I am really asking a stupid question here. So please just
discard if it makes you laugh.

I have a pair of lat-long. My assumption is that my area is very small,
like in a city.

1)Is there a simple equation I can use to calculate the distance in
meters of those two points?

2)If I do d = sqrt [ sqr(p1.lat - p2.lat) + sqr(p1.long - p2.long)], does
d mean anything at all?

Thanks,

Changqing