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The shortest path between two points on a spheroid is known as a geodesic. Such paths are developed using differential geometry. The equator and meridians are great ellipses that are also geodesics [a]. The maximum difference in length between a great ellipse and the corresponding geodesic of length 5,000 nautical miles is about 10.5 meters.
The epicycles of the planets in orbit around Earth (Earth at the center). The path-line is the combined motion of the planet's orbit (deferent) around Earth and within the orbit itself (epicycle).
The point towards which the Earth in its solar orbit is directed at any given instant is known as the "apex of the Earth's way". [4] [5] From a vantage point above the north pole of either the Sun or Earth, Earth would appear to revolve in a counterclockwise direction around the Sun. From the same vantage point, both the Earth and the Sun would ...
On a map, the circles of latitude may or may not be parallel, and their spacing may vary, depending on which projection is used to map the surface of the Earth onto a plane. On an equirectangular projection, centered on the equator, the circles of latitude are horizontal, parallel, and equally spaced. On other cylindrical and pseudocylindrical ...
Animation (not to scale) showing geosynchronous satellite orbiting the Earth. A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital period means that, for ...
Klein quartic with 28 geodesics (marked by 7 colors and 4 patterns). In geometry, a geodesic (/ ˌ dʒ iː. ə ˈ d ɛ s ɪ k,-oʊ-,-ˈ d iː s ɪ k,-z ɪ k /) [1] [2] is a curve representing in some sense the locally [a] shortest [b] path between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold.
However, it arrives there at a different (later) time. The world line of the Earth is therefore helical in spacetime (a curve in a four-dimensional space) and does not return to the same point. Spacetime is the collection of events, together with a continuous and smooth coordinate system identifying the events. Each event can be labeled by four ...
The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the equator and the North Pole, but the true halfway point is 16.0 km (9.9 mi) north of it (approximately between 45°08'36" and 45°08'37") because Earth is an oblate spheroid; that is, it bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.