In the original sense, a geodesic was the shortest route between two points on the Earth's surface. For a spherical Earth, it is a segment of a great circle (see also great-circle distance).

Dec 3, 2025 · A geodesic is a locally length-minimizing curve. Equivalently, it is a path that a particle which is not accelerating would follow. In the plane, the geodesics are straight lines. On the sphere, …

Joseph Howlett, Quanta Magazine, 3 Mar. 2025 In fact, for curved spaces, the shortest path is what’s known as a geodesic: the generalization of a straight, flat line to a curved space.

A geodesic, the shortest distance between any two points on a sphere, is an arc of the great circle through the two points. The formula for determining a sphere’s surface area is 4π r2; its volume is …

In Euclidean geometry, a geodesic is simply a straight line between two points on a surface. In non-Euclidean geometry, a geodesic is typically described as a segment of a great circle. In most cases, …

Illustrated definition of Geodesic: The shortest line segment between two points on a sphere or other curved surface. A Geodesic Dome is made with...

A geodesic is a generalization of the notion of a “straight line” from a plane to a surface, on which it represents in some sense the shortest path between two points.

A geodesic is the shortest path between two points on a curved surface, such as a sphere. In the context of spherical geometry, geodesics are represented by great circles, which are the …

Geometry: properties of circles & curves (Definition of geodesic from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

The noun geodesic and the adjective geodetic come from geodesy, the science of measuring the size and shape of Earth, though many of the underlying principles can be applied to any ellipsoidal …