this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
438 points (97.6% liked)
Memes
51775 readers
1336 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The picture was about sailing the longest direct line.
It's not the longest anyway, but that's what it was about. Technically one could sail infinitely many times around Antarctica in a straight line.
No, that's not Earth's great circle, you'll be turning slightly. It only seems straight on most map projections because they want latitudes to be horizontal.
Well, I stand corrected. I guess we'll need to wait for the ice on the North pole to melt before we can make a more stupid voyage.
It would, however, seem like a straight line to whoever was on the boat, because they'd be traveling due west the whole time, and the course corrections they'd have to make to keep going west would look the same as course corrections needed to account for wind, ocean currents, etc.