Mapping Toolbox 'distance' command inconsistent results with 'radians' units

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I am currently performing some geographical coordinate calculations that use radians as their base units. In trying to leverage the distance command found in the Mapping Toolbox there seem to be some odd results when trying to utilize the 'radians' units option.
As an example, consider the fairly straightforward scenario.
[arclen, az] = distance(0,0,0,90);
The results for both 'arclen' and 'az' are 90 as would be expected. However if units are adjusted to 'radians' only the 'az' result appears appropriate.
[arclen, az] = distance(0,0,0,90,'radians');
The outcome for 'az' is the expected 1.5708. I was expecting 'arclen' to also show an answer of 1.5708, but instead the outcome 2.0354.
If a conversion from the default units output is applied to the 'arclen' and 'az' after the 'distance' calculation by employing 'deg2rad', both results are the expected 1.5708.
Am I misunderstanding something or is this indeed an error in conversion in the base 'distance' command when 'radians' is used for units?

Accepted Answer

the cyclist
the cyclist on 8 Jan 2022
I have no experience with this toolbox/function, but I'm guessing you also need to treat the input units accordingly as radians. So, you probably actually needed
% Degrees
[arclen, az] = distance(0,0,0,90)
arclen = 90
az = 90
% Radians
[arclen, az] = distance(0,0,0,pi/2,'radians') % 90 deg = pi/2 radians
arclen = 1.5708
az = 1.5708
  3 Comments
the cyclist
the cyclist on 8 Jan 2022
Edited: the cyclist on 8 Jan 2022
I don't see an example there that uses the units input (explicitly as radians), and the description of the units input parameter explicitly states that unit is
"Angle units of the latitude and longitude coordinates, specified as 'degrees' or 'radians'."
MJ Snow
MJ Snow on 8 Jan 2022
Well there is the issue in that I misinterpreted 'units' as an output option versus input. Thanks for your time in putting another set of eyes on this.

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