Vincenty's Formulae - Direct Problem

Direct Problem

Given an initial point (φ1, L1) and initial azimuth, α1, and a distance, s, along the geodesic the problem is to find the end point (φ2, L2) and azimuth, α2.

Start by calculating the following:

Then, using an initial value, iterate the following equations until there is no significant change in σ:

Once σ is obtained to sufficient accuracy evaluate:

If the initial point is at the North or South pole then the first equation is indeterminate. If the initial azimuth is due East or West then the second equation is indeterminate. If a double valued atan2 type function is used then these values are usually handled correctly.

Read more about this topic:  Vincenty's Formulae

Famous quotes containing the words direct and/or problem:

    James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.”
    James Thurber (1894–1961)

    The problem of the novelist who wishes to write about a man’s encounter with God is how he shall make the experience—which is both natural and supernatural—understandable, and credible, to his reader. In any age this would be a problem, but in our own, it is a well- nigh insurmountable one. Today’s audience is one in which religious feeling has become, if not atrophied, at least vaporous and sentimental.
    Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)