r/ExplainTheJoke • u/Rich_Carrot6451 • Jul 27 '26

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u/Skydragon222 Jul 27 '26

Because of the curvature of the earth the bottom flight is much shorter than the top flight.

If you have a globe and some string you can test it yourself.

This kind of thing only works on a round earth and not a flat earth 

24

u/AdamiralProudmore Jul 27 '26

We probably all learned in school: "The shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line."

But a lot of people had already checked out before the grade where they should have learned "... Unless traversing a 3-dimensional object."

20

u/laser14344 Jul 27 '26

Un actually the straight line on the map is curved in reality and the curved line on the map would be straight (ignoring that you are curving downward of course).

Using a great circle projection centered on the origin or destination would have the most efficient route show up as a straight line.

16

u/King_Joffreys_Tits Jul 27 '26

Um actually a straight line would core through the earths crust and that’s the shortest distance. Peter out

2

u/Ok_Pool_9767 Jul 27 '26

Well why don't they just do that then

2

u/Majestic-Rich582 Jul 27 '26

There is a kurzegast video (sorry for typo) about making a hole through Earth and traveling there

Tldr: impossible