<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Quaternions avoid much of the ugly trigonometry since quaternion rotation is along a great circle. They’re very useful for smooth rotations in computer graphics and many aerospace applications.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Ed<br class=""><div class="">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;  "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;  "><div class="">_______________________</div><div class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Ed Angel<br class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab)<br class="">Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico<br class=""><br class="">1017 Sierra Pinon</div><div class="">Santa Fe, NM 87501<br class="">505-984-0136 (home)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; ">              </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; ">   </span><a href="mailto:angel@cs.unm.edu" class="">angel@cs.unm.edu</a></div><div class="">505-453-4944 (cell) <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; ">       </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; ">                 </span><a href="http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel" class="">http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel</a><br class=""></div></span></span>
</div>
<div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Sep 20, 2021, at 9:19 AM, Steve Smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com" class="">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
  
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" class="">
  
  <div class=""><p class="">Answering my own earlier question (with props) it seems that a
      (smooth) globe and piece of string would be good support for an
      intuitive approach.    My sister made a "hanging string lampshade"
      in 3rd grade by wrapping cotton string soaked in glue around a
      large balloon and letting it dry.    I inherited it when she went
      into middle school and was "too cool" for it anymore.   I would
      lay in bed and stare at it, remembering the challenges (I helped
      wrap the string) of getting the slick string to do *anything* but
      following near-great-circles.   The shadows it cast on the walls
      (and furniture) might have been my first awareness of projective
      geometry...  I abandoned it when I went to college.<br class="">
    </p><p class="">I assume (REC?) that early age-of-exploration navigators were
      more constrained by trade-winds and convenient
      resupply/port-of-call than great-circles, though misunderstanding
      spherical geometry would be very inconvenient.   <br class="">
    </p><p class="">I also believe that Polynesian stick charts would have
      great-circleness (or more-to-the-point shortest time paths) built
      into them by their nature, not any arcane understanding of
      spherical (ellipsoidal) geometry.  I'm sure they have been studied
      quite thoroughly.<br class="">
    </p><p class=""><br class="">
    </p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/19/21 3:36 PM, Stephen Guerin
      wrote:<br class="">
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:CAOmOqnL+fH7MN=mkN=+vpqJ4NjQFQFEOyFkQrBvRKk4JyCvV0g@mail.gmail.com" class="">
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      <div dir="ltr" class="">In the early 90s, my expat friends in Beijing would
        often debate which were the closer US Cities to Beijing by
        eyeballing the globe - wish we had this too for easy lookup back
        then. Of course, we could have used lat/longs and calculated
        haversine distances but we had pints to drink - and frankly it
        would have been difficult for me to find the algorithm in the
        nascent web back then ;-)<br class="">
        <br class="">
        <a href="https://www.greatcirclemap.com/globe?routes=%20PEK-SEA%2C%20PEK-LAX%2C%20PEK-DET%2C%20PEK-SAN%2C%20PEK-MSP%2C%20PEK-YYZ%2C%20PEK-EWR%2C%20PEK-ORD%2C%20PEK-ANC%2C%20PEK-BGR%2C%20PEK-HNL" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">Beijing (PEK) Great
          Circle Distances for 10 US cities</a><br class="">
        <br class="">
        <span id="cid:part2.6AA9EAAC.1016AC79@swcp.com"><image.png></span><br class="">
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                    <div dir="ltr" class="">_______________________________________________________________________<br class="">
                      <a href="mailto:stephen.guerin@simtable.com" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">Stephen.Guerin@Simtable.com</a>
                      <div class="">CEO, Simtable  <a href="http://www.simtable.com/" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">http://www.simtable.com</a><br class="">
                        <div class="">1600 Lena St #D1, Santa Fe, NM 87505
                          <div class="">
                            <div class="">office: (505)995-0206 <span style="font-size:12.8px" class="">mobile:
                                (505)577-5828</span></div>
                            <div class=""><span style="font-size:12.8px" class="">twitter:
                                @simtable</span></div>
                            <div class=""><span style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><a href="http://zoom.com/j/5055775828" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">z</a><a href="http://oom.simtable.com/" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">oom.simtable.com</a></span></div>
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      <div class="gmail_quote">
        <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Sep 19, 2021 at 3:22
          PM Frank Wimberly <<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">wimberly3@gmail.com</a>>
          wrote:<br class="">
        </div>
        <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
          0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
          <div dir="auto" class="">That gives a good view, Stephen.  Hawaii is
            farther south than I thought.  Thanks.<br class="">
            <br class="">
            <div class="">---<br class="">
              Frank C. Wimberly<br class="">
              140 Calle Ojo Feliz, <br class="">
              Santa Fe, NM 87505<br class="">
              <br class="">
              505 670-9918<br class="">
              Santa Fe, NM</div>
          </div>
          <br class="">
          <div class="gmail_quote">
            <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 3:19
              PM Stephen Guerin <<a href="mailto:stephen.guerin@simtable.com" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">stephen.guerin@simtable.com</a>>
              wrote:<br class="">
            </div>
            <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
              0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
              rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
              <div dir="ltr" class="">I was going to post this similar site but
                Ed beat me with his :-) This one also has a globe
                view...<br class="">
                <br class="">
                <a href="https://www.greatcirclemap.com/globe?routes=CLT-HNL" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">https://www.greatcirclemap.com/globe?routes=CLT-HNL</a><br class="">
                <div class="">
                  <div dir="ltr" class="">
                    <div dir="ltr" class="">
                      <div class="">
                        <div dir="ltr" class="">
                          <div class="">
                            <div dir="ltr" class="">_______________________________________________________________________<br class="">
                              <a href="mailto:stephen.guerin@simtable.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">Stephen.Guerin@Simtable.com</a>
                              <div class="">CEO, Simtable  <a href="http://www.simtable.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">http://www.simtable.com</a><br class="">
                                <div class="">1600 Lena St #D1, Santa Fe, NM
                                  87505
                                  <div class="">
                                    <div class="">office: (505)995-0206 <span style="font-size:12.8px" class="">mobile:
                                        (505)577-5828</span></div>
                                    <div class=""><span style="font-size:12.8px" class="">twitter:
                                        @simtable</span></div>
                                    <div class=""><span style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><a href="http://zoom.com/j/5055775828" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">z</a><a href="http://oom.simtable.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">oom.simtable.com</a></span></div>
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                <br class="">
              </div>
              <br class="">
              <div class="gmail_quote">
                <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Sep 19, 2021
                  at 2:03 PM Frank Wimberly <<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">wimberly3@gmail.com</a>>
                  wrote:<br class="">
                </div>
                <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px
                  0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
                  rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
                  <div dir="auto" class="">Thanks, Ed.  That's useful.<br class="">
                    <br class="">
                    <div class="">---<br class="">
                      Frank C. Wimberly<br class="">
                      140 Calle Ojo Feliz, <br class="">
                      Santa Fe, NM 87505<br class="">
                      <br class="">
                      505 670-9918<br class="">
                      Santa Fe, NM</div>
                  </div>
                  <br class="">
                  <div class="gmail_quote">
                    <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Sep 19,
                      2021, 1:54 PM Edward Angel <<a href="mailto:angel@cs.unm.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">angel@cs.unm.edu</a>>
                      wrote:<br class="">
                    </div>
                    <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px
                      0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
                      rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
                      <div class="">Close: <a href="https://www.airmilescalculator.com/distance/clt-to-hnl/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">https://www.airmilescalculator.com/distance/clt-to-hnl/</a><br class="">
                        <div class="">
                          <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" class=""><span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" class="">
                              <div class="">_______________________</div>
                              <div class=""><br class="">
                                Ed Angel<br class="">
                                <br class="">
                              </div>
                              <div class="">Founding Director, Art, Research,
                                Technology and Science Laboratory
                                (ARTS Lab)<br class="">
                                Professor Emeritus of Computer Science,
                                University of New Mexico<br class="">
                                <br class="">
                                1017 Sierra Pinon</div>
                              <div class="">Santa Fe, NM 87501<br class="">
                                505-984-0136 (home)<span style="white-space:pre-wrap" class="">               </span> <span style="white-space:pre-wrap" class="">       </span><a href="mailto:angel@cs.unm.edu" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">angel@cs.unm.edu</a></div>
                              <div class="">505-453-4944 (cell) <span style="white-space:pre-wrap" class="">     </span><span style="white-space:pre-wrap" class="">                     </span><a href="http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel</a><br class="">
                              </div>
                            </span></span>
                        </div>
                        <div class=""><br class="">
                          <blockquote type="cite" class="">
                            <div class="">On Sep 19, 2021, at 1:48 PM, Frank
                              Wimberly <<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">wimberly3@gmail.com</a>>
                              wrote:</div>
                            <br class="">
                            <div class="">
                              <div dir="auto" class="">Not to change the subject
                                but...
                                <div dir="auto" class=""><br class="">
                                </div>
                                <div dir="auto" class="">A large airliner
                                  recently, 15 minutes ago, flew over
                                  Santa Fe headed west.  My Flight Radar
                                  app tells me that it's a Boeing 777
                                  going from Charlotte to Honolulu at an
                                  altitude of 38000 feet.  I wouldn't
                                  have thought that Santa Fe was on a
                                  great Circle route between those two
                                  cities.  But maybe it is.<br class="">
                                  <br class="">
                                  <div dir="auto" class="">---<br class="">
                                    Frank C. Wimberly<br class="">
                                    140 Calle Ojo Feliz, <br class="">
                                    Santa Fe, NM 87505<br class="">
                                    <br class="">
                                    505 670-9918<br class="">
                                    Santa Fe, NM</div>
                                </div>
                              </div>
                              <br class="">
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