Mathematica GeoDistance function performance ...oo
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg129358] Mathematica GeoDistance function performance ...oo
- From: mark at loc8te.net
- Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 23:05:00 -0500 (EST)
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While the Mathematica "Geo*" functions are wonderful, I was surprised at how slow the GeoDistance computation is - admitting that I'm just getting started with the Geodesy stuff. I have latitude-longitude pairs, as decimal degrees, and want the distance between successive pairs of them. Haven't measured this but the computation seems slow relative to other computations. I understand that the Great Circle computation is non-trivial. Has anyone else found GeoDistance performance an impediment? For example, do the three different methods available to the function make a performance difference? I'm concerned that assuming a "flat earth" model would lead to cumulative errors in the successive differences computation. Thank you, --Mark Chief Scientist Loc8te San Francisco, California USA