Area of a circle "ds" over the whole circle formula_33 is just the arc length, which is its circumference, so this shows that the area "A" enclosed by the circle is equal to formula_34 times the circumference of the circle. Note that the area of a semicircle of radius r can be computed by the integral formula_35. By trigonometric substitution, we substitute formula_36, hence formula_37 The last step follows since the trigonometric identity formula_42 implies that formula_43 and formula_44 have equal integrals over the interval formula_45, using integration by substitution. But on the other hand, since formula_46, the sum of the two integrals is
Great-circle distance Great-circle distance The great-circle distance or orthodromic distance is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere, measured along the surface of the sphere (as opposed to a straight line through the sphere's interior). The distance between two points in Euclidean space is the length of a straight line between them, but on the sphere there are no straight lines. In spaces with curvature, straight lines are replaced by geodesics. Geodesics on the sphere are circles on the sphere whose centers coincide with the center of the sphere, and are called "great circles". The determination of