Determination of Velocity Direction on a Spherical Triangle

$8.00$4.001909 reads

Question

For this, we construct a spherical triangle (a triangle drawn on the surface of a sphere). The triangle has three vertices, at the Geographical North Pole (N), the Euler Pole (P) for the motion we are interested in, and at the point (X) for which we want to calculate that motion. Here is an example triangle:

All measurements in this triangle are made in degrees and each of the triangle’s sides is a great circle. The vector, v, is the velocity at point X.

Question:

Why is v perpendicular to PX. What sort of circle does it run along?

Summary

This question belongs to geophysics and discusses about construction of spherical triangle and to determine velocity direction.

Total word count: 102

 

Add to Cart