Circle of a sphere the Equator the only great circle. By contrast, all meridians of longitude, paired with their opposite meridian in the other hemisphere, form great circles. The diameter of the sphere which passes through the center of the circle is called its axis and the endpoints of this diameter are called its poles. A circle of a sphere can also be defined as the set of points at a given angular distance from a given pole. When the intersection of a sphere and a plane is not empty or a single point, it is a circle. This can be seen as follows:
Inversion in a sphere Inversion in a sphere In geometry, inversion in a sphere is a transformation of Euclidean space that fixes the points of a sphere while sending the points inside of the sphere to the outside of the sphere, and vice versa. Intuitively, it "swaps the inside and outside" of the sphere while leaving the points on the sphere unchanged. Inversion is a conformal transformation, and is the basic operation of inversive geometry. Inversion in a sphere is most easily described using polar coordinates. Choose a system of affine coordinates so that the centre of the sphere is at the origin and