I would have asked this on a math community but I couldn’t find an active one.

In a spherical geometry, great circles are “straight lines”. As such, a triangle can have two or even three right angles to it.

But what if you go the long way around the back of the sphere? Is that still a triangle?

(Edit:) I guess it’s a triangle! Fair enough; I can’t think of what else you would call it. Thanks, everyone.

  • bionicjoey
    100·
    1 month ago

    If you were to walk this route along the surface of the earth, you would walk in perfectly straight lines apart from the three turns.

    • I_Has_A_Hat
      14·
      1 month ago

      No such thing. Even if you were walking on a surface with no change in elevation, the acceleration due to gravity would cause your path to be curved as it followed the curvature of the planet.

      • Farid
        90·
        1 month ago1 month ago

        Curved relative to what?

        Edit: Nvm, I understood what you mean. But I think it’s a pedantic take. They obviously mean it in the context of the surface of the sphere.