Just read somewhere that the shortest path between two locations is an arc and not a straight line! eli5 how an arc is the shortest path for planes.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-circle_distance
https://www.greatcirclemap.com
Great Circles, which you asked about are a circles around the Earth whose center is in the Earth center. When ships/planes for example do long trips they follow a Great Circle route which is the shortest way. This means that you have to change the course repeatedly during the trip. This is clearly visible when you see a Great Circle represented on a 2D map.
If you have access to a physical (round) world globe map you can take a piece of yarn, place the ends on two locations (with yarn being tight). The yarn is then part of a great circle that goes through both locations and it is the shortest distance between those locations.
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