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great circle

intersection of the sphere and a plane which passes through the center point of the sphere
Thing general Q146657
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great circle

Summary

great circle has Wikipedia articles in 29 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[1]

Key Facts

  • great circle is a type of circle of a sphere[2].
  • great circle is a type of closed geodesic[3].
  • great circle is a type of plane–sphere intersection[4].
  • great circle is the opposite of small circle[5].
  • great circle's topic's main category is recorded as Category:Great circle[6].
  • great circle's described by source is recorded as Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition[7].
  • great circle's studied by is recorded as geodesy[8].
  • great circle's on focus list of Wikimedia project is recorded as Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4[9].
  • great circle's maintained by WikiProject is recorded as WikiProject Mathematics[10].

Body

Definition and Type

Recorded subclass of include circle of a sphere[2], closed geodesic[3], and plane–sphere intersection[4]. great circle is the opposite of small circle[5].

Why It Matters

great circle has Wikipedia articles in 29 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[1] It is known by 34 alternative names across languages and contexts.[11]

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [2] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [3] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  3. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  9. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  2. [11] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). great circle. Retrieved April 10, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/great-circle
MLA “great circle.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 10 Apr. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/great-circle.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_great-circle_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{great circle}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/great-circle}, note = {Accessed: 2026-04-10}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): great circle — https://4ort.xyz/entity/great-circle (retrieved 2026-04-10)

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Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 15d ago · Dimitris131 · 2026-06-20 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Topic's main category → Category:Great circle
    Maintained by wikiproject → WikiProject Mathematics
    Subclass of → —
    Aliases → —
    + 6 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbmergeitems-from:0||Q12880488 */"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.