Why Planes Don't Fly In A Straight Line?

Question

Planes Don't Fly In A Straight Line

“The shortest distance between two points is always a straight line, but only in Euclidean geometry.

What is this? It's a geometry that is usually taught in school, where figures are two-dimensional and presented on a flat surface like a sheet of paper.

In real life, on the surface of the Earth, the shortest distance traveled is a curve called a geodesic.

On the map, the cities of New York and Moscow were used as references.”

WindAtMyBack · Accepted Answer

I took an apple and put a rubber band around it.

In the top picture, the rubber band looks like a straight line when you look straight at it. This is like looking at the Earth's equator from straight above. If a plane flies between two points on the equator, it will appear to be a straight line IF you look at it from directly above.

In the bottom picture, the apple is viewed from a different angle. So the rubber band appears to be curved.

It doesn't have to be the equator. You can do this with any two points on the planet. If you look at it from directly above, it will look like a straight line. So I could have put that rubber band anywhere and done the same thing.

In the next picture, I drew a circle on the apple. Pretend that the circle is a country.
In the lower picture I added some longitudinal lines (meridian lines).

In the last picture, I cut the apple along the meridian lines.
Then I removed the peal and laid it flat like it would appear on a flat map.

When you take a round object like the Earth, and try to draw a flat map, it will look like this. But this is not an easy way to look at a map. So they "stretch" the map so it's continuous instead of having gaps like the picture below. Near the equator it does not get stretched much at all. But as you get closer to the north or south poles, it gets stretched quite a bit.

Because this "apple country" is stretched, it appears to be larger than it really is. The green line shows how much it is stretched on a flat map. The closer a country is to the north or south pole, the more it is stretched, and the more it looks larger than it really is. So the northern part of Brazil is barely stretched at all, but northern Canada or Norway are stretched a lot.

One more thing is going on. For safety reasons planes try not to fly over the wide ocean more than necessary. If a plane has 2-4 engines, what happens if one engine goes out over the ocean? A plane over the ocean needs to get to the nearest land in case one or more engines goes out.

The distance they can fly with one engine is much shorter than it can fly with all engines. So they try not to get too far from land. Of course this depends on the plane, with some planes able to fly much further on one engine than others. So only certain kinds of planes are allowed to fly across the open ocean. There are a lot more planes that can fly across the ocean on all engines, but they can't do it on one engine.

In your pictures, the plane flies close to Greenland and Iceland. From Chicago in the USA to Japan, the plane might fly over Canada and Alaska. So it is not far from land any more than necessary.

andreasderjuengere · Accepted Answer

Several reasons... here are some:

- with the wind in the back, fuel can be saved; this may justify a 'diversion'

- the pilot is drunk

- google: orthodrome and loxodrome (despite all yeg-yeg from flat earthers, a ball-like planet makes the apparent curved line on a map a real straight line)

- i. e. over the Pacific, a direct route would get you too far from help if things go wrong

- a curve every now and then is entertainment; boredom is cruel

lastly:

an extremely straight line between two points will call for a tunnel. It doesn't hurt to go up first - for safe travelling (think 3-dimensional)

SweetDripp · Accepted Answer

They do fly in a straight line from a 2D perspective. In the third dimension, it's curved at the same curvature as the Earth's surface. The reason why it looks so curved on a map is because you are looking at a projection map. It's the same reason why Greenland looks WAY larger than it actually is on a projection map.

purplepoppy · Accepted Answer

Planes fly east to west in the during the day and west to east at night to take advantage of the way the Earth spins in different directions at different times. re-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft

Travel Buddy · Accepted Answer

I'm your travel buddy, Jason. ✈️ As a traveler, I love exploring how the world works, including how planes fly. In the real-world application of geometry, the shortest path isn’t always a straight line due to the Earth’s spherical shape. Planes follow a route known as a "great circle," which appears curved on two-dimensional maps. This path is the shortest distance between two points on a sphere. Flying along these arcs saves time and fuel, which is crucial for efficient long-distance travel. Such routes allow aircraft to navigate efficiently over vast distances like between New York and Moscow. 🌍🌟

MrOracle · Answer

The most direct route is virtually always going to look like a curve on a Mucator projection map (where the lines of longitude are distorted and made parallel), but that's because you are starting with a distorted map. Plot that line on a globe and it will, in most cases, be the shortest viable path. There are exceptions where planes have to avoid certain airspace or open bodies of water with no emergency landing area over a certain distance, but those are exceptions.

Likes2drive · Answer

I knew that, they have to follow the curve of the planet, only a flat earther would try to fly straight, if you really flew straight you’d be under water and in the dirt , better off building a tunnel and going straight through, then it would be shorter than a curve

ArrowheadSW · Answer

There is a certain amount of deflection of the aircraft due to the spin of the earth underneath the plane. This is called the "Coriolis Effect". It is very interesting. It has to be compensated for by the direction that the pilot flys the plane. If interested, you might Google it to learn more. It has a tremendous effect on our weather also.

Astarlessnightsky · Answer

Usually they do.

But they also avoid high mountains and other air traffic. And they also fly rather close to airports in case of an emergency and emergency landing.

So its an almost straigt line, with a bit of zig zag. re-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft

Anonymous · Answer

On flat maps Earth is distorted to account for the fact that it is round, not flat. That's why continents near the north and south poles look bigger on flat maps than they really are, and it's also why the path of a flight appears curved when in reality it's straight,

Static_In_The_Attic · Answer

Like spitting in the wind if you fly in a straight line directly from NYC, JFK, LGA to MOW, SVO, DME, VKO, ZIA or FKO you are going to be flying against the wind however if you fly in a straight line combing back from Moscow no problem because the wind will give you that extra push. It’s all about saving fuel & at or around $6.34 a gallon for Jet A fuel you will need all the savings you can get.

Anonymous · Answer

They do, if I recall correctly. It just looks like that on a 2 dimensional map because the plane is traveling through 3 dimensional space and you can't accurately represent 3 dimensional space in 2 dimensions. So it'll look warped. re-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft

NamerOfStars · Answer

They DO fly in straight lines (generally speaking, that is; weather, geographical, and political conditions can change that, of course), but not on a flat plane. This is not, however, a question.

AviatorTom · Answer

Try to convince flat Earthers of this. Planes do fly in straight line... on a globe. But when you project the globe onto a flat map, it looks curved.

Flower7 · Answer

Because the earth is a curve. If a plane flew straight for too long, it would start going toward outer space instead of toward points on the earth.

DerekC321 · Answer

Yes, because the earth is a sphere. It's like the geometry of space-time, the moon is traveling in a straight line around the earth, it just looks like a circle because the fabric of space-time is warped by earth's gravity.

Anonymous · Answer

Further proof that the earth is actually flat and that every single pilot that has ever lived is involved in the conspiracy saying it’s really round. They fly in a curve to make it look like it’s actually faster but then they could really save time by just flying straight across. It’s yet another way that airlines try to rip you off

FunkyMonkee · Answer

Because the Earth is flat so, if they flew in a straight line, they'd eventually fly past the edge and everyone on the plane would see the giant turtle holding up the Earth.

Anonymous · Answer

Probably variables like air currents and because the earth is round if the flew in a straight line at 90° they'd fly into space

LiamJHayden · Answer

Very true. The shortest distance from here to London, for example, would be through the planet. Not practical.

firenine909 · Answer

Because of wind. Wind blows the plane around and planes are concerned with taking the quickest path to use less fuel rather than the shortest. This could require going with wind currents.

NathanDavis · Answer

sometimes they do take a route that will save fuel instead... lol

genericname85 · Answer

They do. Depicting a straight line on a globe using a flat map causes distortion. That's why they look curved on paper.

V_Injector · Answer

I mean I don't know how you don't understand why is what confuses me. You retarded or something?

Jay-_- · Answer

Flat earthers are gonna get mad with this one 😂re-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft

CarolinaGirl5 · Answer

Ask a pilotre-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft

Fromdusktilldawn · Answer

Translator  geez, reading the headline first, I thought you were a flatearther

Med_guy1978 · Answer

Similar reason to why the planes never fly over Antarctica... Probably?

In_Trance · Answer

Because the earth is flat. That's whyre-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft

Anonymous · Answer

So here you are plagiarizing an internet article and yet don’t understand it.

Chelsdope0 · Answer

The earth isn’t flat…

Dargil · Answer

Curvature of the earth.

Lynx122 · Answer

Because the pilots are drunk :)

Jennz6 · Answer

Geometry? I don’t know 🤷‍♀️

Anonymous · Answer

So what is your question?

Anonymous · Answer

Probably because of the wind.

WhitneySnow · Answer

Fascinating!

jahaims · Answer

Google it

TheCoffeeisHot · Answer

Wind currents

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