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Jul 6, 2024 · Aircraft fly curved routes due to the earth's curvature and jet streams. Flight paths prioritize safety, time, and fuel efficiency. Jet streams can save time on flights, but also cause turbulence. Have you ever wondered why aircraft don’t fly in a straight line from origin to destination? It is almost always a curved or a semi-circled route ...
Feb 25, 2020 · The reason for this is down to simple mathematics and physics. The circumference of the Earth is a lot further around the equator than it is at higher or lower latitudes towards the poles of the ...
May 9, 2017 · Instead, it's a sphere that's slightly flattened at the poles. When traditional flat maps are made, distortions occur when the sphere is made flat. Those flight paths that don't appear straight on a flat map will look quite straight if you look at them on a globe. To test it for yourself, use a string to connect two cities halfway across the world.
Jan 12, 2024 · The primary reason is that the Earth is a sphere, and when planes travel long distances, they need to take into account the curvature of the Earth. Flying in a straight line across the globe would mean going in a curve on the Earth’s surface. This is known as the Great Circle Route, which is the shortest distance between two points on a sphere.
Oct 31, 2022 · Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that planes flying "straight and level" prove the Earth is flat. That concept doesn't mean planes are flying in a literal straight line. It's a ...
Dec 12, 2021 · Mercator maps. In 3D, a "straight path" on a sphere is a curve. Our brain is able to identify such curve "as straight" on azimuthal projections, but on other types of map projection, specially on Mercator maps, such equivalence makes no sense. Example with azimuthal projection on the left and web Mercatoron the right:
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Dec 23, 2023 · If a plane tried to go in a completely straight line, it wouldn’t work well. If it flew too close to the ground, it would crash into the curve of the Earth. If it went too high, the thin air up there would make it lose lift and engine power, and it would have to come down far from where it was supposed to go.
