Great Circles:

The shortest path between two points on a plane is a straight line. On the surface of a sphere, however, there are no straight lines. The shortest path between two points on the surface of a sphere is given by the arc of the great circle passing through the two points. A great circle is defined to be the intersection with a sphere of a plane containing the center of the sphere.

Two great circles

If the plane does not contain the center of the sphere, its intersection with the sphere is known as a small circle. In more everyday language, if we take an apple, assume it is a sphere, and cut it in half, we slice through a great circle. If we make a mistake, miss the center and hence cut the apple into two unequal parts, we will have sliced through a small circle.

Two small circles

Spherical Triangles:

If we wish to connect three points on a plane using the shortest possible route, we would draw straight lines and hence create a triangle. By analogy, if we wish to connect three points on the surface of a sphere using the shortest possible route, we would draw arcs of great circles and hence create a spherical triangle. To avoid ambiguities, a triangle drawn on the surface of a sphere is only a spherical triangle if it has all of the following properties:

Hence, in figure below, triangle PAB is not a spherical triangle (as the side AB is an arc of a small circle), but triangle PCD is a spherical triangle (as the side CD is an arc of a great circle). You can see that the above definition of a spherical triangle also rules out the "triangle" PCED as a spherical triangle, as the vertex angle P is greater than 180° and the sum of the sides PC and PD is less than CED.

The figure below shows a spherical triangle, formed by three intersecting great circles, with arcs of length (a,b,c) and vertex angles of (A,B,C).

Note that the angle between two sides of a spherical triangle is defined as the angle between the tangents to the two great circle arcs, as shown in the figure below for vertex angle B.

Earth's Surface:

The rotation of the Earth on its axis presents us with an obvious means of defining a coordinate system for the surface of the Earth. The two points where the rotation axis meets the surface of the Earth are known as the north pole and the south pole and the great circle perpendicular to the rotation axis and lying half-way between the poles is known as the equator. Great circles which pass through the two poles are known as meridians and small circles which lie parallel to the equator are known as parallels or latitude lines.

The latitude of a point is the angular distance north or south of the equator, measured along the meridian passing through the point. A related term is the co-latitude, which is defined as the angular distance between a point and the closest pole as measured along the meridian passing through the point. In other words, co-latitude = 90° - latitude.

Distance on the Earth's surface is usually measured in nautical miles, where one nautical mile is defined as the distance subtending an angle of one minute of arc at the Earth's center. A speed of one nautical mile per hour is known as one knot and is the unit in which the speed of a boat or an aircraft is usually measured.