Great Circles

Pandp77 · #1 $Old$ May 20th, 2008, 09:43 AM

Great Circles!

Use the points:

C ( 40 N , 70 W ) D ( 40 N , 150 W )E( 70 N , 150 W ) F ( 70 N , 70 W )

to find the distance from C to E along a great circle.

( Hint: You will need to find the lengths of the Trapezium CDEF)

Any Contribution and Help will be Appreciated.

Thanks!!!

galactus · #2 $Old$ May 20th, 2008, 10:34 AM

Are you familiar with the Haversine formula?.

Let lat1=u, long1=v, lat2=x, long2=y

$cos^{-1}\left(cos(u)cos(v)cos(x)cos(y)+cos(u)sin(y)cos(x)sin(y)+sin(u)sin(x)\right)$

Multiply this by the radius of the Earth and it should get you close.