# Where can I find the distance between two cities anywhere in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 10, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-the-distance-between-two-cities-anywhere-in-the-world/223844 "2004-01-10T18:22:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-the-distance-between-two-cities-anywhere-in-the-world/223844/1 "2004-01-10T18:22:42Z")
I’m searching for a website where I could find the actual distance between two places (say, Moscow and Tokyo, or Paris and Bogota). I can’t use a map and do the maths, since on a flat map, the distances are warped. Is there such a website out there? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-the-distance-between-two-cities-anywhere-in-the-world/223844/2 "2004-01-10T18:34:33Z")
Searching Google for “distance calculator” turns up a lot of possibly useful sites. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-the-distance-between-two-cities-anywhere-in-the-world/223844/3 "2004-01-10T18:36:59Z")
[http://www.indo.com/distance/](http://www.indo.com/distance/) ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-the-distance-between-two-cities-anywhere-in-the-world/223844/4 "2004-01-10T18:38:37Z")
Try this one: [http://www.wcrl.ars.usda.gov/cec/java/lat-long.htm](http://www.wcrl.ars.usda.gov/cec/java/lat-long.htm) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-the-distance-between-two-cities-anywhere-in-the-world/223844/5 "2004-01-10T18:54:17Z")
Great! Thank you all. Somehow, I didn’t manage to find such a cite with google (I didn’t use the word _calculator_). Both sites are great. How…and by the way, I didn’t know there was so much “paris” and “moscow” in the US (these are the two cities I used to try the sites)… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-the-distance-between-two-cities-anywhere-in-the-world/223844/6 "2004-01-11T00:10:55Z")
There was a thread not too long ago about what cities were the furthest apart. Both distance calculators suggested by **runner pat** and **Ringo** were brought up. After some discussion and testing, we determined that the latter assumed the Earth was a simple sphere while the other one allowed for the fact that it’s somewhat oblate. So I’d go with the [indo.com](http://indo.com) one as being more accurate. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-the-distance-between-two-cities-anywhere-in-the-world/223844/7 "2004-01-11T01:58:31Z")
So, it would explain the discrepancies I noticed. Anyway, I didn’t need extremely accurate distances. I just wanted to have some idea of the relative distance between various places.