Bob --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Be careful about the shortest path. Of course you and the earth know
that a geodesic arc is the shortest path, cutting nearly a great circle
along the point from A to B. But map distortions give you a different
"view" and when you draw a straight line on a mercator, you have a rhumb
line. Maps are either angle preserving or area preserving ... but not
both. So depending on the type map you use, you will get different (and
of course, erroneous) distances and angles. Hence if we go straight
east (and maintain straight east) we follow a small circle. On a real
globe, it is NOT the shortest path.
