CBSE Class 11-science Answered
Dear student,
The distance between two points is the length of the path connecting them. In the plane, the distance between points is given by the Pythagorean theorem. For curved or more complicated surfaces, the so-called metric can be used to compute the distance between two points by integration. When unqualified, "the" distance generally means the shortest distance between two points. For example, there are an infinite number of paths between two points on a sphere but, in general, only a single shortest path. The shortest distance between two points is the length of a so-called geodesic between the points. In the case of the sphere, the geodesic is a segment of a great circle containing the two points.And because it is a circle, the distnace is in terms of arc length.
Hope this helps.
Team
Topperlearning.com