title: What is the unit of measure for the distance of BufferWithTolerance in sql 2008
body: <p>I found this link
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11688922/create-a-sqlgeography-polygon-circle-from-a-center-and-radius">Create a SqlGeography polygon-circle from a center and radius</a></p>
  
  <p>which says it is meters.   This also shows meters on my system.</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT * FROM sys.spatial_reference_systems where spatial_reference_id = 4326;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, when I create a circle using this code,  the resulting circle has a radius of about 27 miles when I plot it using google maps api and manually measure the distance,  so something is definitely off.   It should be 1/2 a meter and it's actually 27 miles. </p>
  
  <pre><code>DECLARE @g geometry;
  SET @g = geometry::STGeomFromText('POINT(-88.0 44.5)', 4326);
  select @g.BufferWithTolerance(.5,.01,1)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>-Randy</p>