Question

Which of the following will mean the shortest distance between two places on the earth's surface?
A) Travel along the Tropic of Cancer
B) Travel along the Tropic of Capricorn
C) Travel along the Equator
D) Travel along Greenwich Meridian

Answer 1

Hint: The Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only known astronomical object to host and sustain life. Land, which consists of continents and islands, covers around 29.2 percent of the Earth's surface. A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system associated with positions on Earth.

Complete answer:
Travel along the Equator following will mean the shortest distance between two places on the earth's surface

The equator of the Earth is an imaginary planetary line with a radius of 40,075 kilometres (24,901 miles). The equator is positioned at 0 degrees latitude, midway between the North Pole and the South Pole, and separates the world into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

The equator of a spinning spheroid (such as a planet) is the parallel (circle of latitude) at which latitude is defined to be 0° in spatial (3D) geometry as applied to astronomy. It is the imaginary line on the spheroid that divides it into northern and southern hemispheres and is equidistant from its poles. In other words, it is the point where the spheroid intersects the plane perpendicular to its axis of rotation and is located halfway between its geographical poles.

When the Sun is directly above the Earth's equator (about March 20 and September 23 during the equinoxes), sunlight shines perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation, giving all latitudes a 12-hour day and 12-hour night. Because the sun shines practically exactly above the equator on and near the equator almost every day of the year, the equator has a very constant daytime temperature throughout the year.

Travel along the Equator following will mean the shortest distance between two places on the earth's surface. Therefore the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note: The latitude of the Earth's equator is 0° (zero degrees) of arc. The equator is one of Earth's five prominent circles of latitude; the other four are both polar (the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic Circle) and tropical circles (the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn) (the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn). The equator is the only line of latitude that is also a great circle, with its plane passing through the globe's centre. The celestial equator is defined by the plane of the Earth's equator pushed outwards to the celestial sphere.