🔍 Key Concepts

• Great circle vs rhumb line: which is the shortest path on a sphere? • How latitude (low vs high) affects the difference between great circle and rhumb line distance. • Effect of crossing hemispheres or being near the 180th meridian on track geometry.

💭 Think About

• Ask yourself: where on the globe does the curvature of meridians and parallels make a rhumb line deviate most from the great circle? • Compare short East–West routes in low latitudes with long routes in high latitudes: on which would a straight line on a Mercator chart differ more from the true shortest path? • Think about whether simply crossing the equator or being near the 180th meridian, by itself, creates a large distance difference.

✅ Before You Answer

• Identify in which option the track lies mostly in high latitudes, where meridians converge strongly. • Decide whether short, low‑latitude routes will show much difference between rhumb line and great circle distances. • Confirm that being near the equator alone usually makes the two distances more similar, not less, for moderate voyage lengths.