The equatorial circumference is 40,075.017 km (24,901.461 mi), while the polar circumference is 40,007.863 km (24,859.734 mi).
I guess there's no great harm in assuming the earth is hypothetically cow shaped, and it avoids that awkward series for shortest distance twixt points following an ellipsoids surface.
Yeah, it's pretty minor stuff of no real import to many ... unless someone had a background in geodesy and had to measure fields on a oblate spheroid with fragmented moving plates girt by sloshing fluids.
dig A0.0,0.0/0.0,90.0.aerial @dns.toys
and
dig A0.0,0.0/90.0,0.0.aerial @dns.toys
both produce TXT "aerial distance = 10007.06 KM"
The equatorial circumference is 40,075.017 km (24,901.461 mi), while the polar circumference is 40,007.863 km (24,859.734 mi).
I guess there's no great harm in assuming the earth is hypothetically cow shaped, and it avoids that awkward series for shortest distance twixt points following an ellipsoids surface.