Calculating bounding box a certain distance away from a lat/long coordinate in Java
- by Bryce Thomas
Given a coordinate (lat, long), I am trying to calculate a square bounding box that is a given distance (e.g. 50km) away from the coordinate. So as input I have lat, long and distance and as output I would like two coordinates; one being the south-west (bottom-left) corner and one being the north-east (top-right) corner. I have seen a couple of answers on here that try to address this question in Python, but I am looking for a Java implementation in particular.
Just to be clear, I intend on using the algorithm on Earth only and so I don't need to accommodate a variable radius.
It doesn't have to be hugely accurate (+/-20% is fine) and it'll only be used to calculate bounding boxes over small distances (no more than 150km). So I'm happy to sacrifice some accuracy for an efficient algorithm. Any help is much appreciated.
Edit: I should have been clearer, I really am after a square, not a circle. I understand that the distance between the center of a square and various points along the square's perimeter is not a constant value like it is with a circle. I guess what I mean is a square where if you draw a line from the center to any one of the four points on the perimeter that results in a line perpendicular to a side of the perimeter, then those 4 lines have the same length.