The correct term for this measure of the geodesic is *orthodromic distance* and ...

_lqaf · on Sept 1, 2020

Telling people the shortest path is a great circle is also fun.

dylan604 · on Sept 2, 2020

Me: 'The shortest distance is a straight line'

You: Except on a globe, it is a great circle.

Me: 'Nobody said on the surface. I'm tunneling through.'

pmiller2 · on Sept 2, 2020

It's more like that on the surface of a sphere, great circles are lines. That's how it's interpreted in spherical geometry.