Distance between geographic centers of all US states

states.csv

states_distances.py

import pandas as pd
import scipy.spatial

# load csv with states' data. 
# this csv is included in this gist. 
# Data taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geographic_centers_of_the_United_States#Updated_list_of_geographic_centers
# Coordinates correspond to Updated geographic centers of the states of the United States and Washington, DC
statesDF = pd.read_csv('states.csv');

# create distances dataframe
distancesDF = pd.DataFrame(columns=["state1", "state2", "distance"])

# Line 22 can be modified to calculate whichever distance is preferred. 
# See available options at 
# https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/spatial.distance.html#module-scipy.spatial.distance

for state1, lat1, lon1 in zip(statesDF.state, statesDF.latitude, statesDF.longitude):
    for state2, lat2, lon2 in zip(statesDF.state, statesDF.latitude, statesDF.longitude):
        distancesDF = distancesDF.append({
            "state1": state1,
            "state2": state2,
            "distance": scipy.spatial.distance.euclidean([float(lat1), float(lon1)], [float(lat2), float(lon2)])
            }, ignore_index=True);

distancesDF.to_csv('state_distances.csv', index=False);

NOTE: In the list of states figures the District of Columbia, which is not a state.

For DC, the signs are flipped. It should be: 38.9101, -77.0147

@jbaughma Just updated, thanks for the comment!

What is the unit of the output?

I think line 22 is calculating Euclidean distance in a way it shouldn't (to @luna4289 's point above, there are no units to calculating the distance on a plane this way from lat and long coordinates). I have edited the code in a way that I think works better - feel free to checkout my fork: https://gist.github.com/rebecca-sich/1c422acc1b222b8a04fcd3cfae79bc18