Circle of a sphere Circle of a sphere A circle of a sphere is a circle that lies on a sphere. Such a circle can be formed as the intersection of a sphere and a plane, or of two spheres. A circle on a sphere whose plane passes through the center of the sphere is called a great circle; otherwise it is a small circle. Circles of a sphere have radius less than or equal to the sphere radius, with equality when the circle is a great circle. In the geographic coordinate system on a globe, the parallels of latitude are such circles, with
Distance from a point to a line to the point P. Hence: We can solve this equation for "x", The y coordinate of the point of intersection can be found by substituting this value of "x" into the equation of the original line, Using the equation for finding the distance between 2 points, formula_35, we can deduce that the formula to find the shortest distance between a line and a point is the following: Recalling that "m" = -"a"/"b" and "k" = - "c"/"b" for the line with equation "ax" + "by" + c = 0, a little algebraic simplification reduces this to the standard expression. The