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Δ λ = λ 2 − λ 1 {\displaystyle \Delta \lambda =\lambda _ {2}-\lambda _ {1}} . Finally, the haversine function hav (θ), applied above to both the central angle θ and the differences in latitude and longitude, is. The haversine function computes half a versine of the angle θ, or the squares of half chord of the angle on a unit circle ...
A great circle is the largest circle that can be drawn on any given sphere. Any diameter of any great circle coincides with a diameter of the sphere, and therefore every great circle is concentric with the sphere and shares the same radius. Any other circle of the sphere is called a small circle, and is the intersection of the sphere with a ...
A side (regarded as a great circle arc) is measured by the angle that it subtends at the centre. On the unit sphere, this radian measure is numerically equal to the arc length. By convention, the sides of proper spherical triangles are less than π , so that 0 < a + b + c < 2 π {\displaystyle 0<a+b+c<2\pi } (Todhunter, [ 1 ] Art.22,32).
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 ...
Euclidean distance. In mathematics, the Euclidean distance between two points in Euclidean space is the length of the line segment between them. It can be calculated from the Cartesian coordinates of the points using the Pythagorean theorem, and therefore is occasionally called the Pythagorean distance. These names come from the ancient Greek ...
(The distance AB along the parallel is (a cos φ) λ. The length of the chord AB is 2(a cos φ) sin λ / 2 . This chord subtends an angle at the centre equal to 2arcsin(cos φ sin λ / 2 ) and the great circle distance between A and B is 2a arcsin(cos φ sin λ / 2 ).) In the extreme case where the longitudinal separation ...
The distance (or perpendicular distance) from a point to a line is the shortest distance from a fixed point to any point on a fixed infinite line in Euclidean geometry. It is the length of the line segment which joins the point to the line and is perpendicular to the line. The formula for calculating it can be derived and expressed in several ways.
Each great circle is associated with a pair of antipodal points, called its poles which are the common intersections of the set of great circles perpendicular to it. This shows that a great circle is, with respect to distance measurement on the surface of the sphere, a circle: the locus of points all at a specific distance from a center.