ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Orthodromic navigation

Okay kiddo, let's talk about orthodromic navigation! So, have you ever played treasure hunt or gone on a scavenger hunt? It's kind of like that.

Whenever we need to go somewhere, we use maps or GPS to tell us which direction we should go in, right? Now, imagine if you were on a ship or a plane and needed to know the direction of your destination without getting lost. That's where orthodromic navigation comes in!

Orthodromic navigation is a special type of navigation that uses an imaginary line called a great circle to guide us to our destination. A great circle is like a giant circle that goes around the Earth, and it's the shortest path between two points.

So, let's say we're on a ship and we need to get to another country on the other side of the world. We could use orthodromic navigation to figure out the best direction to go in. We would look at the map and draw a line along the great circle from our starting point to our destination.

Then, we would use special tools like a sextant or a compass to make sure we stay on that line as we travel. That way, we know we're going in the right direction and won't get lost.

It's kind of like following a treasure map and using a compass to make sure we're going in the right direction. But instead of finding treasure, we're just trying to get to our destination!

So, that's orthodromic navigation in a nutshell. It's a special way of navigating that uses great circles to guide us to our destination. Pretty cool, huh?