Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Two antipodal points, u and v are also shown. The great-circle distance, orthodromic distance, or spherical distance is the distance between two points on a sphere, measured along the great-circle arc between them. This arc is the shortest path between the two points on the surface of the sphere. (By comparison, the shortest path passing ...
Going the "long way round" on a great circle between two points on a sphere is a geodesic but not the shortest path between the points. The map t → t 2 {\displaystyle t\to t^{2}} from the unit interval on the real number line to itself gives the shortest path between 0 and 1, but is not a geodesic because the velocity of the corresponding ...
The shorter of the two great-circle arcs between two distinct points on the sphere is called the minor arc, and is the shortest surface-path between them. Its arc length is the great-circle distance between the points (the intrinsic distance on a sphere), and is proportional to the measure of the central angle formed by the two points and the ...
The shortest distance along the surface of a sphere between two points on the surface is along the great-circle which contains the two points. The great-circle distance article gives the formula for calculating the shortest arch length on a sphere about the size of the Earth. That article includes an example of the calculation.
A rhumb line appears as a straight line on a Mercator projection map. [ 1 ] The name is derived from Old French or Spanish respectively: "rumb" or "rumbo", a line on the chart which intersects all meridians at the same angle. [ 1 ] On a plane surface this would be the shortest distance between two points.
In a small triangle on the face of the earth, the sum of the angles is only slightly more than 180 degrees. A sphere with a spherical triangle on it. Spherical geometry or spherics (from Ancient Greek σφαιρικά) is the geometry of the two- dimensional surface of a sphere [a] or the n -dimensional surface of higher dimensional spheres.
The haversine formula determines the great-circle distance between two points on a sphere given their longitudes and latitudes.Important in navigation, it is a special case of a more general formula in spherical trigonometry, the law of haversines, that relates the sides and angles of spherical triangles.
Great-circle navigation or orthodromic navigation (related to orthodromic course; from Ancient Greek ορθός (orthós) 'right angle' and δρόμος (drómos) 'path') is the practice of navigating a vessel (a ship or aircraft) along a great circle. Such routes yield the shortest distance between two points on the globe.