Originally Posted by
otambalkar
Apologies if this has been hashed to death...
Please guide to the appropriate thread if needed.
Why does the transatlantic flight path of pretty much all flights look like an inverted U..well not exactly but if I look at the flight path and then look at the starting point and ending point of the flight, the first thing at I wonder is....why isnt the flight path straight? Will it not be a shorter flight if instead of going all way to Newfoundland...st. john and near Greenland you just leave the US coast at NY/VA and keep flying straight?
Is is because of the curvature of earth that flying closer to the equator takes longer
OR weather patterns
OR is it to prove the age old adage...the smallest distance between any two points is not always a straight line!
This is not quite the place to write a full explanation of map projections, and the distortions that occur when you try to show a sphere (which earth more-or-less is) on a flat surface -- and, indeed, my knowledge is too shallow to write one.
But most of the curvature is a result of that phenomenon. The true shortest distance between two points on earth will show on most map projections as an arc. (Hence the term "Great Circle Route" for the most direct line.) See
http://gc.kls2.com/, or prove it for yourself with a globe and a piece of dental floss.