Se state cercando un algoritmo per calcolare la distanza tra due coordinate in PHP, ecco a voi.
/**
* Calculates the great-circle distance between two points, with
* the Vincenty formula.
* @param float $latitudeFrom Latitude of start point in [deg decimal]
* @param float $longitudeFrom Longitude of start point in [deg decimal]
* @param float $latitudeTo Latitude of target point in [deg decimal]
* @param float $longitudeTo Longitude of target point in [deg decimal]
* @param float $earthRadius Mean earth radius in [m]
* @return float Distance between points in [m] (same as earthRadius)
*/
public static function vincentyGreatCircleDistance(
$latitudeFrom, $longitudeFrom, $latitudeTo, $longitudeTo, $earthRadius = 6371000) {
// convert from degrees to radians
$latFrom = deg2rad($latitudeFrom);
$lonFrom = deg2rad($longitudeFrom);
$latTo = deg2rad($latitudeTo);
$lonTo = deg2rad($longitudeTo);
$lonDelta = $lonTo - $lonFrom;
$a = pow(cos($latTo) * sin($lonDelta), 2) +
pow(cos($latFrom) * sin($latTo) - sin($latFrom) * cos($latTo) * cos($lonDelta), 2);
$b = sin($latFrom) * sin($latTo) + cos($latFrom) * cos($latTo) * cos($lonDelta);
$angle = atan2(sqrt($a), $b);
return $angle * $earthRadius;
}
Fonte http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10053358/measuring-the-distance-between-two-coordinates-in-php