It will be a point if the plane is tangent to the sphere.
PQ
A point.
That thing.
It is a cross section.
It will be a point if the plane is tangent to the sphere.
great circle
A circle~
We're having a hard time making out the dark grey area from here. But the intersection of a plane and a sphere is always a circle.
A Circle.
A circle, which could degenerate to a point.
The dark area is so dark that I'm unable to see it from here. But I do know that in general, the intersection of a plane and a sphere is a circle.
The great circle is the intersection of a sphere and any plane passing through its centre. Given two distinct points on the surface of a sphere, those two points and the centre of the sphere define a plane. [If one of the points is at the antipodes of the other, an infinite number of planes are defined.] The great circle is the circle formed when that plane meets the surface of the sphere.
If the line is not IN the plane ... it just zaps through the plane from some direction ... then it touches the plane in only one point. The intersection is a point.if it is lined up with the plane, then the intersection is a line.
Section of the plane.
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Tangent