Patent ID: 7870127

Claim:
A computerized method comprising: using a square look-up table and, in at least a portion of one or more of the following acts, one or more processors to determine a surface distance between two geographical locations by: obtaining normalized ordered n-tuples of Cartesian co-ordinates of the two geographical locations by adding a value of the earth's radius to each respective component of the ordered n-tuples of Cartesian co-ordinates of each of the two geographical locations; determining the square of the linear distance between the two geographical locations using the normalized ordered n-tuples of Cartesian co-ordinates of the two geographical locations; converting the calculated square of the linear distance between the two geographical locations to a surface distance value between the two geographical locations by using a square of linear to surface distance look-up table; and outputting the surface distance value indicative of a surface distance between the two geographical locations.