What is the conversion of latitude/longitude to a 1 mile [closed]

Question

I'm working with Google Maps and I need to be able to search in a 5 mile radius around a zip code center so I figured the easiest way to do that would be to figure out the conversion of latitude/longitude to miles.

Answer 1

Here is the basic idea using Google's Geometry library.

Remember to add the geometry library. It is separate than the Google maps library.

<script type="text/javascript" 
  src="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?libraries=geometry&sensor=false">
</script>

example usage:

    //the distance function defaults to km.  
    //to use miles add the radius of the earth in miles as the 3rd param.
    //earths radius in miles == 3956.6
    var distance = 
      google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(
            /* from LatLng */, 
            /* to LatLng */, 
            /* radius of the earth */
      );

    if (distance <= 5) { //less or equal to five miles
        var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
            map: map,
            position: //LatLng
        });              
    }

I have an example fiddle of this in action.