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Definition of Great circle
1. Noun. A circular line on the surface of a sphere formed by intersecting it with a plane passing through the center.
Generic synonyms: Line
Definition of Great circle
1. Noun. (geometry) A circle defined as the intersection of the surface of a sphere and a plane which passes through the centre of the sphere. ¹
2. Noun. A segment of such circle representing the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Great Circle
Literary usage of Great circle
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review by William B. Dana (1849)
"The arc of a great circle is the shortest line between two points on the surface
of а globe, and no parallel of latitude is a great circle except the ..."
2. A Text-book of Mineralogy: With an Extended Treatise on Crystallography and by Edward Salisbury Dana (1922)
"We can now transpose the great circle II from its normal to its twin position,
... The dashed arc 1Г gives the twin position of the 1049 great circle II. ..."
3. A Text-book of Mineralogy: With an Extended Treatise on Crystallography and by Edward Salisbury Dana, William Ebenezer Ford (1922)
"However, it is m' necessary to draw the great circle through JF and x to locate
... 39) at C, and turning it so that W and x fall on the same great circle, ..."
4. Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute by United States Naval Institute (1897)
"TO FIND THE great circle COURSE BY INSPECTION. By LIEUTENANT JB BUSH, US Navy.
If in the " astronomical triangle " PZM, for M, the celestial body, ..."
5. Report of the Annual Meeting (1871)
"Some had obtained charts having great circle routes laid down. If they were driven
from this track by adverse winds, they returned as soon as the wind would ..."
6. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"The great circle which the sun describes in virtue, of his proper motion is called
the Ecliptic. It has received this name from the circumstance that the ..."
7. Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science (1899)
"The increasing recognition among mariners of the sound principle of conducting
a ship along the arc of the great circle joining the points of departure and ..."
8. The American Practical Navigator: Being an Epitome of Navigation and by Nathaniel Bowditch, George Wood Logan (1906)
"As the great circle makes a different angle with each meridian that is ...
If, while endeavoring to follow a great circle, the ship is driven from it, ..."
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