Mathematics desk
< August 1	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Mathematics Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 2

I have great circles, the greatest, everyone says so

Groping for a word. On the hypersphere draw two great circles, one in the wx plane, one in the yz plane. How to describe these circles' relation to each other? —Tamfang (talk) 18:50, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Tamfang: Disjoint. They have no point in common, so they are disjoint. They aren't coplanar, so they probably would not be called concentric, even though (0,0,0,0) is their common center. --CiaPan (talk) 19:36, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Well yes, they are disjoint, but each of these is the unique [something] of the other. —Tamfang (talk) 02:51, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

One of the transformed phases? (Rigid transformation) of each other. --Askedonty (talk) 19:06, 4 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Not unique. —Tamfang (talk) 23:24, 5 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

They are the unit circles in complementary orthogonal 2-planes that intersect at 0? —Kusma (t·c) 19:45, 4 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Dual more or less expresses what I have in mind. —Tamfang (talk) 15:49, 7 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Normal perhaps (if it is given that the referent is some great circle). catslash (talk) 17:10, 7 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That may be the best answer I'll get. Thanks. —Tamfang (talk) 15:58, 8 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]