Great circles are not straight lines on the Mercator projection. *Rhumb* lines a... | Hacker News

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schiffern on Feb 8, 2013 | parent | context | favorite | on: Mercator Puzzle

Great circles are not straight lines on the Mercator projection. Rhumb lines are straight, but not great circles.

If you want great circles to be straight lines, use the Gnomonic projection.

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/GreatCirclesOnMercatorsCha...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomonic_projection

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