If A is a real symmetric matrix and P is an orthogonal projection onto a hyperplane, then we derive a formula for the Moore–Penrose inverse of PAP. As an application, we obtain a formula for the Moore– Penrose inverse of an Euclidean distance matrix (EDM) which generalizes formulae for the inverse of a EDM in the literature. To an invertible spherical EDM, we associate a Laplacian matrix (which we define as a positive semidefinite n × n matrix of rank n − 1 and with zero row sums) and prove some properties. Known results for distance matrices of trees are derived as special cases. In particular, we obtain a formula due to Graham and Lovász for the inverse of the distance matrix of a tree. It is shown that if D is a nonsingular EDM and L is the associated Laplacian, then D−1 − L is nonsingular and has a nonnegative inverse. Finally, infinitely divisible matrices are constructed using EDMs.