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Completely unrelated to the actual content of your post, but:

> megameter

Completely valid SI way to represent distance, but I have never seen anyone use this in my entire life! Out of curiosity, do you live in some location or work in some industry where this is used? If so, where?

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It was also somewhat popularized by the navigator in the Star Blazers / Yamato series. Anime nerds FTW.

I did some intercontinental work and found it easier to say (mostly in my own head) that I was “eleven megameters” from home, rather than “seven thousand miles”. I blame my nerdiness and willingness to be slightly weird.

But I do enjoy the unit very much now and I think its time might be coming!

I like it. Might start using it myself!

I use mm, cm, m, km every day, so why not Mm! Definitely an appropriate unit for international-scale measurement, so it's weird we default to just using thousands of kilometres now that I'm thinking about it.

Was it straight line or orthodromic distance?

The Earth is spherical. What do you mean by “straight line” here? The direct line through the Earth?

Yes. Perfectly unconventional, like megameters!

the latter. (great circle distance)

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