An interesting problem: distance estimating

[Matthew Gillen]

markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
>> On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 10:16:09AM -0500, markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
>>>> markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
>>>>> I've been thinking about an issue:
>>>>> So, what do you think would be a practical algorithm for estimating
>>>>> distance?
>>>> Use google maps' web services api ;-)
>>> That would be "easier" in a sense, but not the best solution for a high
>>> volume web site.
>> So adjust to suit your intuition:
>>
>> - for x > 250 miles, return x
>> - for 100 < x < 250 miles, return 1.05 * x
>> - for 10 < x < 100 miles, return 1.1 * x
>> - for x < 10 miles, return 1.3 * x
> 
> That just seems too arbitrary, there should be some curve I could use :-)

You could use google maps' web service api to experimentally gather some data
points, then use your favorite data analysis package to fit a good curve ;-)

Matt

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