How do I draw a radius around a point on a map?
Open the radius map, set the center with your location or its coordinates, type the distance and choose miles or kilometers. It draws the circle, gives the points due north, east, south and west on its edge, and can list the US towns and ZIP areas inside.
What the circle means
Every point on the edge is the same straight-line distance from the center, measured over the curve of the Earth. It is not a driving distance or a travel time: a 10-mile circle can include a town that is 25 miles away by road, or across water with no road at all.
What counts as inside
A town or ZIP area is listed when its map point is inside the circle. Part of a large city or ZIP area can still lie outside, and a place whose point is just beyond the edge can reach into the circle. Census ZIP areas are not delivery ZIP Codes.
What people use it for
Seeing how far 5, 30 or 100 miles reaches from home; checking which towns fall inside a delivery or service area; marking a search area around a last known position; or choosing places within a set distance for a job or school search. For one destination, the distance tool gives the exact figure instead.
Very large circles
On a flat map a circle hundreds of miles wide looks stretched, especially far north or south, because the map projection distorts size there. The circle’s edge points are still exact; use the listed coordinates rather than the drawing.