The shortest distance between two points (i.e., the 'great-circle-distance' or 'as the crow flies'), according to the 'haversine method'.
This method assumes a spherical earth, ignoring ellipsoidal effects.
Usage
distHaversine(p1, p2, r=6378137)
Arguments
p1
longitude/latitude of point(s). Can be a vector of two numbers, a matrix of 2 columns (first one is longitude, second is latitude) or a SpatialPoints* object
p2
as above
r
radius of the earth; default = 6378137 m
Value
Vector of distances in the same unit as r (default is meters)
Details
The Haversine ('half-versed-sine') formula was published by R.W. Sinnott in 1984, although it has been known for much longer. At that time computational precision was lower than today (15 digits precision). With current precision, the spherical law of cosines formula appears to give equally good results down to very small distances. If you want greater accuracy, you could use the distVincentyEllipsoid method.
References
Sinnott, R.W, 1984. Virtues of the Haversine. Sky and Telescope 68(2): 159
http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_circle_distance