Measurement of a Circle Measurement of a Circle Measurement of a Circle or Dimension of the Circle (Greek: , "Kuklou metrēsis") is a treatise that consists of three propositions by Archimedes, ca. 250 BCE. The treatise is only a fraction of what was a longer work. Proposition one states: The area of any circle is equal to a right-angled triangle in which one of the sides about the right angle is equal to the radius, and the other to the circumference, of the circle. Any circle with a circumference "c" and a radius "r" is equal in area with a right triangle with the
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