GREATCIRCLE

Great circle

A great circle, also known as an orthodrome or Riemannian circle, of a sphere is the intersection of the sphere and a plane which passes through the center point of the sphere, a partial case of a circle of a sphere where the plane is not required to pass through the center. Any diameter of any great circle coincides with a diameter of the sphere, and therefore all great circles have the same circumference as each other, and have the same center as the sphere. A great circle is the largest circle that can be drawn on any given sphere. Every circle in Euclidean 3-space is a great circle of exactly one sphere.

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great circle

Noun

  1. A circle defined as the intersection of the surface of a sphere and a plane which passes through the centre of the sphere.
  2. A segment of such circle representing the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: great circle
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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