Minimum distance between a point and a line in latitude, longitude

Question

I have a line with two points in latitude and longitude
A: 3.222895, 101.719751
B: 3.227511, 101.724318

and 1 point
C: 3.224972, 101.722932

How can I calculate minimum distance between point C and a line consists of point A and B? It will be convenient if you can provide the calculation and objective-c code too. The distance is around 89 meters (using ruler in Google Earth).

Answer 1

Thanks to mimi and this great article http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html but they don't give the whole picture. Here is a detail one. All this points are collected using Google Earth using Placemark to mark the locations. Make sure lat/long are set to decimal degrees in Preferences.

lat A = 3.222895  
lon A = 101.719751  
lat B = 3.222895  
lon B = 101.719751  
lat C = 3.224972  
lon C = 101.722932  
Earth radius, R = 6371

1. First you have to find the bearing from A to C and A to B.
Bearing formula

bearingAC = atan2( sin(Δλ)*cos(φ₂), cos(φ₁)*sin(φ₂) − sin(φ₁)*cos(φ₂)*cos(Δλ) )  
bearingAB = atan2( sin(Δλ)*cos(φ₂), cos(φ₁)*sin(φ₂) − sin(φ₁)*cos(φ₂)*cos(Δλ) ) 

φ is latitude, λ is longitude, R is earth radius

2. Find A to C distance using spherical law of cosines

distanceAC = acos( sin(φ₁)*sin(φ₂) + cos(φ₁)*cos(φ₂)*cos(Δλ) )*R

3. Find cross-track distance

distance = asin(sin(distanceAC/ R) * sin(bearingAC − bearing AB)) * R

Objective-C code

double lat1 = 3.227511;
double lon1 = 101.724318;
double lat2 = 3.222895;
double lon2 = 101.719751;
double lat3 = 3.224972;
double lon3 = 101.722932;

double y = sin(lon3 - lon1) * cos(lat3);
double x = cos(lat1) * sin(lat3) - sin(lat1) * cos(lat3) * cos(lat3 - lat1);
double bearing1 = radiansToDegrees(atan2(y, x));
bearing1 = 360 - ((bearing1 + 360) % 360);

double y2 = sin(lon2 - lon1) * cos(lat2);
double x2 = cos(lat1) * sin(lat2) - sin(lat1) * cos(lat2) * cos(lat2 - lat1);
double bearing2 = radiansToDegrees(atan2(y2, x2));
bearing2 = 360 - ((bearing2 + 360) % 360);

double lat1Rads = degreesToRadians(lat1);
double lat3Rads = degreesToRadians(lat3);
double dLon = degreesToRadians(lon3 - lon1);

double distanceAC = acos(sin(lat1Rads) * sin(lat3Rads)+cos(lat1Rads)*cos(lat3Rads)*cos(dLon)) * 6371;  
double min_distance = fabs(asin(sin(distanceAC/6371)*sin(degreesToRadians(bearing1)-degreesToRadians(bearing2))) * 6371);

NSLog(@"bearing 1: %g", bearing1);  
NSLog(@"bearing 2: %g", bearing2);  
NSLog(@"distance AC: %g", distanceAC);  
NSLog(@"min distance: %g", min_distance);

Actually there's a library for this. You can find it here https://github.com/100grams/CoreLocationUtils