Great circle

"Great Circle" redirects here. For other uses, see Great Circle (disambiguation).
The great circle g (green) lies in a plane through the sphere's center O (black). The perpendicular line a (purple) through the center is called the axis of g, and its two intersections with the sphere, P and P' (red), are the poles of g. Any great circle s (blue) through the poles is secondary to g.
A great circle divides the sphere in two equal hemispheres.

In mathematics, a great circle or orthodrome is the circular intersection of a sphere and a plane passing through the sphere's center point.[1][2]

  1. ^ W., Weisstein, Eric. "Great Circle -- from Wolfram MathWorld". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2022-09-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Weintrit, Adam; Kopcz, Piotr (2014). Loxodrome (Rhumb Line), Orthodrome (Great Circle), Great Ellipse and Geodetic Line (Geodesic) in Navigation. USA: CRC Press, Inc. ISBN 978-1-138-00004-9.