"Joel Rubin" wrote
On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 09:03:24 -0500, "HankG" wrote:

Just curious. Anyone know what the longest GC distance from any point on
Earth to any other point?

Of course, the original definition (not the current definition) of the
meter was 1/10-millionth of the distance between the north pole and
the quator. So, presumably, the distance from pole to pole is 20
million meters or 20,000 km.

The earth is not quite a sphere - I believe the equator is slightly
longer than a circle of longitude.

I was not aware there was ever any intention to make a kilometer relational
to a nautical mile. It is not, and is just as arbitrary a length of
measurement in relationship to a nautical mile (which derives from the
spherical geometry of all modern positioning) as the statute (English) mile.
Metric arithmetic is certainly easier (for humans, computers could care
less) than statute miles. But both are arbitrary as far as latitude and
longitude are concerned and each require an equal effort of arithmetic to
convert to nautical miles. Air and marine charts use nautical miles for this
reason.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia