Geodesic

In mathematics, a geodesic is the “straightest” path between 2 points over a curved surface. This can be thought of as a car driving, making sure its wheels are at the same speed, and always sticking to the surface: the geodesic is its path. If a plane flies on a geodesic, its path will almost always not look straight. However the earth is not flat, it has the shape of a sphere. Displayed on a map you would see a curved line only because of the distortion in maps. Paths on a sphere are also called great circles, such that in this case, two points are joined by two distinct geodesics. A minimal geodesic (or segment) is a particular case where the geodesic joining two distant points has the shortest length.

Category:Geometry