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Angle AOB is a central angle. A central angle is an angle whose apex (vertex) is the center O of a circle and whose legs (sides) are radii intersecting the circle in two distinct points A and B. Central angles are subtended by an arc between those two points, and the arc length is the central angle of a circle of radius one (measured in radians). [1]
In the diagram, θ is the central angle, r the radius of the circle, and L is the arc length of the minor sector. The angle formed by connecting the endpoints of the arc to any point on the circumference that is not in the sector is equal to half the central angle. [2]
The inscribed angle theorem states that an angle θ inscribed in a circle is half of the central angle 2θ that intercepts the same arc on the circle. Therefore, the angle does not change as its vertex is moved to different positions on the same arc of the circle.
The user may choose to replace the inclination angle by its complement, the elevation angle (or altitude angle), measured upward between the reference plane and the radial line—i.e., from the reference plane upward (towards to the positive z-axis) to the radial line. The depression angle is the negative of the elevation angle.
The chord function is defined geometrically as shown in the picture. The chord of an angle is the length of the chord between two points on a unit circle separated by that central angle. The angle θ is taken in the positive sense and must lie in the interval 0 < θ ≤ π (radian measure).
A diagram illustrating great-circle distance (drawn in red) between two points on a sphere, P and Q. Two antipodal points, u and v are also shown.. 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.
Thus Δφ, the angle measure of each subinterval, is equal to b − a (the total angle measure of the interval), divided by n, the number of subintervals. For each subinterval i = 1, 2, ..., n, let φ i be the midpoint of the subinterval, and construct a sector with the center at the pole, radius r(φ i), central angle Δφ and arc length r(φ ...
The haversine formula determines the great-circle distance between two points on a sphere given their longitudes and latitudes.Important in navigation, it is a special case of a more general formula in spherical trigonometry, the law of haversines, that relates the sides and angles of spherical triangles.