Relating to geodesy or geodesics; concerning the measurement and mapping of earth or the shortest paths between points on curved surfaces.
From geodesy + -ical (Latin -icalis, 'relating to'). The -ical suffix is a more formal variant of -ic.
Geodesical principles explain why airplane routes look weird on flat maps—pilots fly geodesical lines (shortest routes on a sphere), which curve dramatically when projected onto paper.
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