Originally Posted by
oceanicclarence
yes but its a mercator chart. the distance between meridians of longitude doesnt change with change of latitude, only the scale increases.
Sure, the distance on the chart doesn't change-- but that's not what they're asking for.
In any case, since the Earth isn't actually spherical the correct rhumb-line answer is 269.515 nm, 310.153 statute miles, assuming WGS84.
"If calculating the distance between two points using Lat/Long in the manner described, the type of projection used on the map is surely somewhat academic!"
True, if you're calculating "the" distance-- which he isn't.