Encyclopedia > Rhumb lines

Article Content

Rhumb line

Redirected from Rhumb lines

A rhumb line is a path of constant bearing on a spherical (or elliptical) object. If you follow a given (magnetic-deviation compensated) compass-bearing on Earth, you will be following a rhumb line, which spirals from one pole to the other, never actually reaching the poles (nor is it defined at the poles).

Contrast with great circle.

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!

Featured Article

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

... is the bill of rights which forms part of the Constitution of Canada adopted in 1982. The Charter developed out of the United Nations human rights and freedoms movement ...