¶ Spherical Triangle Sequence
← Spherical Triangle Sequence | Spherical Triangle Sequence →
Index Entry
Spherical Triangle Sequence:
*of it in my dividers and I’ll superimpose it on the equator. And, of course, the equator is A and B. And quite clearly it’s a much shorter distance between A and B if you stay on the equator than it is to take this detour over 90 degrees, like this, and come back 90 degrees again.
“So great circles are called geodesics. The word geodesic is old but it was revived by both Einstein and the Indian Riemann [sic], and it means the most economical relationship between events in the Universe, and they are never straight lines. If, for instance, we see two airplanes in flight. They’re independent of the surface of the Earth. They are steerable planets if you will. Photographs were taken at night of airplanes fighting during WWII at night with tracer bullets. Both were using machine guns with tracer bullets, and you’ll see one of them hit the other and it goes inward to the Earth. You see the tracery is an absolute corkscrew. If you are for instance wanting to fire at a bird, which I hope you don’t want to fire at one, but if you did want to fire at a bird you wouldn’t hit it if you aim at where it is. You’d have to aim at where you think it’s going to be. And gravity is going to start affecting it, even though it’s a short”
