What The Fuss Is All About 31
inthefade: This is one of those “explain it to me like I’m an idiot because I am” things. Why does a flight to Seoul go this route? Why go up through the frozen tundra of the north instead of going straight across the US then across the ocean? Why not the straightest route? I’m sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for this. I just want to know what it is. Reblogging because I like to drop knowledge on lots of people. It’s due to the curvature of the earth. Since the earth is a sphere, that’s actually close the the shortest possible route - it’s a shorter trip around the world the closer to the poles you are. If you have a globe (or even a regular basketball or something) you can put a piece of string on the source and destination, and pull it taught - you’ll see that it naturally goes up to the north pole (or south, depending on where you’re starting and ending).

inthefade:

This is one of those “explain it to me like I’m an idiot because I am” things.

Why does a flight to Seoul go this route? Why go up through the frozen tundra of the north instead of going straight across the US then across the ocean? Why not the straightest route?

I’m sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for this. I just want to know what it is.

Reblogging because I like to drop knowledge on lots of people.

It’s due to the curvature of the earth. Since the earth is a sphere, that’s actually close the the shortest possible route - it’s a shorter trip around the world the closer to the poles you are. If you have a globe (or even a regular basketball or something) you can put a piece of string on the source and destination, and pull it taught - you’ll see that it naturally goes up to the north pole (or south, depending on where you’re starting and ending).

(Source: openareas)

27 October 2011 ·

31 notes

  1. annoyatron said: Because the airline that operates that flight have a hub in that specific city in Russia. Most flight that fly over the north take the route over Greenland because of the jet stream.
  2. ammytay said: ::hands you string everyone else is telling you to get::
  3. sblaufuss reblogged this from openareas and added:
    drop knowledge on lots...people. It’s due to...sphere,...
  4. filmchris said: Non-Euclidian mathematics
  5. killaguhrilla said: You have to remember that the earth is a globe. Flights to Asia take the polar route because it is literally shorter to go over the pole than the long way around.
  6. groverviolet said: Get a globe, use a string to measure the paths, going up and over is shorter if you’re thinking in 3D instead of 2D.
  7. belmore said: I don’t know why it goes up quite that far, but don’t forget that Earth isn’t flat, and that picture isn’t properly rotated. Wolfram Alpha dot com has a better graphic of it; just search “new york to seoul” to see.
  8. coyotesqrl said: If you had a globe and some string handy instead of just a projection map you could see the great circle route is shorter. Of if CJ Cregg had been able to get us to change our maps on Big Block of Cheese Day.
  9. missingalot said: Curvature of the earth.
  10. thesemicullen said: Jet steam, I think.
  11. anarchyandscotch said: That map shows a flattened version of what is actually a sphere. If you took a piece of string and connected those two points on a globe, you’d see that what appears to be a straight route on this map is actually longer.
  12. openareas posted this

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