You can plot a course in a straight line. Unfortunately, weather.
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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Only with an icebreaker
in case there are others like me who have to see what it looks like on a Mercator projection map:
Wow. I can't believe my perspective of the world is that distorted. It makes me want to only look at it in 3D. If we've all mainly looked at Mercator projections our whole lives our sense of where everything is relative to everything else and what direction is completely off.
People complain about the proportional sizing of Mercator but the sense of direction it gives us is completely broken. I think the average person knows it's off and people think there is an error factor to consider that a really straight like might be a little squiggly. But nope. This made me realize the Mercator gives pretty much zero accurate sense of direction if real distance is involved.
People complain about the proportional sizing of Mercator but the sense of direction it gives us is completely broken.
With respect, this is silly. People complain about the proportional sizing of the Mercator projection because disproportionate sizing is literally the only problem with the Mercator projection.
The sense of direction being off has got literally nothing to do with Mercator. That's an inherent drawback of trying to project a three dimensional globe onto a 2D image. Literally every single projection has this exact problem, in one form or another. It is considered ot be an acceptable trade-off for not having to work with globes all the time.
Stop looking for yet more baseless reasons to bash the Mercator projection, which is a perfectly reasonable and acceptable projection to use within its intended usecase (which this specific example literally is).
Short distances are fine, and obviously directly east/west are fine. Directly north/south is also pretty alright, but, as you move further from the equator, any east or west movement is covering less distance, and vice versa.
Right. That is the size issue. I'm saying there is a substantial direction issue as well.
So would there be turning involved still orrrrr?
You're constantly, gradually turning downward, technically.
Actually not turning would be falling. You are constantly being turned upward.
what
no, that's a straight line
No. Similarly, if you look at how planes fly, they fly in what looks like arcs, going north and then back south. On a mercator projection in looks longer, but it is the shortest straight (ignoring the curve of the earth) line.
If it makes you feel better, the line is actually curved along the surface of the earth, you know, if you believe in a spherical earth.
Nah. I've come to believe it's shaped like Dick Cheney's black, twisted heart.
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You can also build a nearly straight railway going from California through Canada and Alaska all the way to China.
That'd be awesome. That probably wouldn't work because it would take 100 years for California to build their first high speed rail
The USA-Russia border crossing might prove troublesome. Also, keeping railways running through the middle of Siberia in an operational state all year round would be challenging.
Also, keeping railways running through the middle of Siberia in an operational state all year round would be challenging.
Definitely don't let Deutsche Bahn handle that part
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The word "can" Is doing some heavy lifting here. I mean, there is a difference between theoretically possible and actually being done.
Yeah, it's going through the most dangerous water passage in the world IIRC, between South America and Antarctica. We do go through it fairly regularly at this point, but it's still not "safe."
Even better, imho, you can sail in a direct line from OG Zeeland (Netherlands) to New Zealand.
Can you, though? You'd have to squeeze through the narrow English Channel first, and that would probably require some turns.
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I'm no sailing historian, but that's probably how they actually discovered New Zealand.
"Heya mates, how'bout we be goin' straight ahead 'til back'ome we arrrggggh!!"
The Polynesians took the long route.
The European explorers actually took a very similar route, so this seems to be an obvious option for sailors doing island hops in that area.
Don’t the circumpolar winds essentially prevent this, or at least make it really impractical?
Sorry, can't hear you down here in my submarine
DON'T THE CURCUMPOLAR WINDS ESSENTIALLY PREVENT THIS, OR AT LEAST MAKE IT REALLY IMPRACTICAL?
Ping.
Sailing near the south pole is not advisable, you might die. But thats also true for many other things, so whatever.
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That southern ocean is brutal tho
Especially going the wrong direction!
It'd be less bad on the return trip, but then you're fighting the trade winds and the Canary current instead.
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One of the few world maps with New Zealand on it.
I got this far on the Wikipedia and gave up:
On a curved surface, the concept of straight lines is replaced by a more general concept of geodesics, curves which are locally straight with respect to the surface. Geodesics on the sphere are great circles, circles whose center coincides with the center of the sphere.
"Locally straight" is just a mathsy way of saying "it's straight if you zoom in a bunch".
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There is also a route that can be drawn from Halifax, Nova Scotia on the Canadian east coast on the Atlantic ... head a bit south east and without touching land and only going over the ocean, you can end up on the west coast of British Columbia, in Canada on the Pacific coast.
I used to reference a website that showed that ... but now I can't seem to find it. :(
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Hopefully someone shares this with Geowizard, ultimate straight line challenge.
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