The circumference.
If talking in terms of the shortest distance around a sphere, the answer is NO.
A great circle is any circle on the surface of a sphere whose center is at the center of the sphere. The shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere is a part of the great circle that passes through them.
This imaginary line is called the great circle. A great circle is the shortest distance between two point on a sphere. On a flat map the great circle route takes the shape of the arc of a circle due to the projection method used to fit the path on the earth's sphere to a flat surface.
-- The 'great circle' route is the shortest distance between any two places on Earth (or on any other sphere). -- A great circle is a circle on the surface whose center is at the center of the Earth. -- The phrase "around the globe" is really not too clear.
The imaginary circle around the earth that divides it into two halves is called the Equator. It is located at 0 degrees latitude and serves as the starting point for measuring latitude.
... is called a Great Circle arc.
You can measure the distance between two cities on a globe using a tool called a great circle distance calculator. This tool utilizes the geographical coordinates of the two cities to calculate the shortest distance along the surface of the globe, known as the great circle distance. Alternatively, you can use a string and wrap it around the globe to measure the approximate distance between the two cities.
A straight route is the path taken in a straight line while the shortest distance between two points on a circle is known as the great circle route. However, while travelling the great circle around the globe, the path ahead will look like the straight route.
The reason they call the equator the great circle is because circles the whole earth in the middle.becase its the only line that runs in the centre of the earth and goes right arround . {nickstar}
Every so-called "great circle" is (more or less) the longest circumference of the Earth that includes any two points. The great circle includes the shortest distance between the two points for travel along the Earth's surface.
The answer lies in Non-Euclidean geometry (spherical geometry). Florida, the Philippines, and Alaska are three collinear points on a great circle, a great circle is the equivalent to a line in Euclidean(2-D) geometry. A great circle is also classified as the shortest distance from one point to another around a circle. Because the earth is round, the distance seen on a flat map is a lot further than the distance on a globe, due to distortion. Therefore, following the great circle that goes through the three collinear points of Florida, the Philippines, and Alaska, it is a shorter distance to fly over Alaska
The great circle distance between the airports (DEL-HEL) is 5229km.