• AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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    5 months ago

    Wouldnt that be the line it would fly actually? If you go from one side of the earth to the other its fastest over the poles or something no? Or because of map projections? Idk that much about maps.

    • Sequentialsilence@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Ignoring the fact that you would go east to reach Hawaii from Japan, because it’s in the northern hemisphere, it would actually curve up not down, and because both japan and Hawaii are close-ish to the equator the curve would be relatively flat.

      Fun fact because every country charges you for every nautical mile flown in their airspace, you will actually get lines that zigzag and are less fuel efficient because they are paying less for airspace miles. Example. If you fly from Chicago to Paris or Dubai, you don’t actually head east first, you first head northeast into Canadian airspace and bypass the New England area because Canadian airspace is cheaper than U.S. airspace.

    • bleistift2@feddit.de
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      5 months ago

      Judging by eye on the map projection OpenStreetMap uses, the direct line between Japan and Hawaii is about one quarter of the westbound straight line between Japan and Hawaii.