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Math help needed - Warning complex equation!!....read only if brain is in stable conditon

Scherer, Bill Bill.Scherer at verizonwireless.com
Thu Feb 6 09:22:42 EST 2003 
On 6 Feb 2003, Jay wrote:

> right, now that I got your attention, I need help on the following
> piece of python code:
> 
> distance = 1.15 * (180 * (acos((sin(pi * lat1 / 180) * sin(pi * lat2 /
> 180)) + (cos(pi * lat1 / 180) * cos(pi * lat2 / 180) * cos(pi * (lon2
> – lon1) / 180))) / pi) * 60)
> 
> when trying to compile I get the error "SyntaxError: invalid syntax".


[posted and mailed]

I'm thinking that what appears between lon2 and lon1 is a typo or 
a character encodeing issue; I interpreted it as just "^", and 
came up with this:

Python 2.2.2 (#1, Oct 15 2002, 13:18:41) 
[GCC 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.96-110)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more 
information.
>>> from math import *
>>> lat1, lat2, lon1, lon2 = 40, 50, 60, 70
>>> a = pi * lat1 / 180
>>> b = pi * lat2 / 180
>>> dist = 1.15 * (180 * (acos((sin(a) * sin(b)) + (cos(a) * \
... cos(b) * cos(pi * (lon2 ^ lon1) / 180))) / pi) * 60)
>>> 
>>> print dist
5286.53109574
>>> 







> 
> Uses Math libray, pi is a defined constant (lat1, lat2, lon1, lon2 are
> variables - two sets of latitude and longitude values)
> 
> Using Linux Red Hat 8.0, Python 2.2.2
> 
> I've counted the number of brackets (11 in total both sides) there and
> they do match, so I can't really see anything obviously wrong with
> this.
> 
> there is a handsome reward available for the solution
> provided....(hehehhe)
> 

-- 
Bill.Scherer at Verizon Wireless
RHCE 807101044903581
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