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In mathematics, a metric space is a set together with a notion of distance between its elements, usually called points. The distance is measured by a function called a metric or distance function. [1] Metric spaces are the most general setting for studying many of the concepts of mathematical analysis and geometry.
One may measure the distance between the closest points of the two objects; in this sense, the altitude of an airplane or spacecraft is its distance from the Earth. The same sense of distance is used in Euclidean geometry to define distance from a point to a line, distance from a point to a plane, or, more generally, perpendicular distance ...
Distance geometry is the branch of mathematics concerned with characterizing and studying sets of points based only on given values of the distances between pairs of points. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] More abstractly, it is the study of semimetric spaces and the isometric transformations between them.
Distances can be measured on a map using compasses with two spikes, also called a dividing compass (or just "dividers"). The hinge is set in such a way that the distance between the spikes on the map represents a certain distance in reality, and by measuring how many times the compasses fit between two points on the map the distance between ...
The scale of a map is the ratio of a distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground. This simple concept is complicated by the curvature of the Earth's surface, which forces scale to vary across a map. Because of this variation, the concept of scale becomes meaningful in two distinct ways.
In taxicab geometry, the distance between any two points equals the length of their shortest grid path. This different definition of distance also leads to a different definition of the length of a curve, for which a line segment between any two points has the same length as a grid path between those points rather than its Euclidean length.
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 ...
Distance from the tangent point on the map is proportional to straight-line distance through the Earth: r(d) = c sin d / 2R [38] Logarithmic azimuthal is constructed so that each point's distance from the center of the map is the logarithm of its distance from the tangent point on the Earth.