Planet Distance

They are all rotating,or so I've been told,at different speeds and there's really no way of being sure of the distance between them at any time.

As the crow flies is probably on Google.

ok
What does "As the crow flies is probably on Google" mean?
What?

It's an expression for the shortest distance between one place and another.I'm surprised it isn't used where you are.

I used it to make the point that the question as posed is a mite naive. The orbits of the planets are elliptical.I'm not mathematically astute but I would guess a formula would be impossible except possibly for the purpose of quiz shows.

the answer is in triangulation. this is the method kepler first used and this site has a nice an quick explanation of how its done.
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ast99/ast99139.htm

ok
Thanks for the cool site.