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Earth radius (denoted as R 🜨 or R E) is the distance from the center of Earth to a point on or near its surface. Approximating the figure of Earth by an Earth spheroid (an oblate ellipsoid), the radius ranges from a maximum (equatorial radius, denoted a) of nearly 6,378 km (3,963 mi) to a minimum (polar radius, denoted b) of nearly 6,357 km (3,950 mi).
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 through the sphere's interior is the chord between ...
Geographical distance or geodetic distance is the distance measured along the surface of the Earth, or the shortest arch length. The formulae in this article calculate distances between points which are defined by geographical coordinates in terms of latitude and longitude. This distance is an element in solving the second (inverse) geodetic ...
Let A 1, A 2, B 1, B 2, C 1, C 2 be the six intersection points, with the same letter corresponding to the same line and the index 1 corresponding to the point closer to P. Let D be the point where the lines A 1 B 2 and A 2 B 1 intersect, Similarly E for the lines B 1 C 2 and B 2 C 1. Draw a line through D and E. This line meets the circle at ...
Vincenty's formulae. Vincenty's formulae are two related iterative methods used in geodesy to calculate the distance between two points on the surface of a spheroid, developed by Thaddeus Vincenty (1975a). They are based on the assumption that the figure of the Earth is an oblate spheroid, and hence are more accurate than methods that assume a ...
Great-circle navigation or orthodromic navigation (related to orthodromic course; from Ancient Greek ορθÏŒς (orthós) 'right angle' and δρÏŒμος (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.
Circle of equal altitude. The circle of equal altitude, also called circle of position ( CoP ), is defined as the locus of points on Earth on which an observer sees a celestial object such as the sun or a star, at a given time, with the same observed altitude. It was discovered by the American sea-captain Thomas Hubbard Sumner in 1837 ...
Angular distance. Angular distance or angular separation is the measure of the angle between the orientation of two straight lines, rays, or vectors in three-dimensional space, or the central angle subtended by the radii through two points on a sphere. When the rays are lines of sight from an observer to two points in space, it is known as the ...