The line war has begun

*folds world map in half
*sticks pencil through

Low IQ: it's not a straight line

Medium IQ: it's a geodesic on a sphere, so it is a straight line

High IQ: it's not a straight line

It can get a few percent longer if sailing between Madagascar and the rest of Africa but Pakistan-Russia does not have the same ring to it, I guess.


Edit: source (German), they also show the longest land route (across Eurasia of course)

Ridiculous. This line is clearly gay.

Today on the internet: Fun with spherical geometry.

This reminds me of some maps by Andy Woodruff.

They weren't made to find long lines, and picking out a single line can be a tad difficult, but it's very interesting nonetheless.

Your dad and I think you should start looking for a job.

How can any line that is on the surface of a sphere be straight rather than a curve?

Space-time itself is curved, therefore there is no such thing as a straight line.

Globists will argue that on a globe this is a straight line. Seen these arguments before, don't work on me

Every line is a straight line in one dimension

Would clarifying words have helped? "If you only sailed with forward force..." or "Following along the surface of the earth..." or... what?

Obviously they mean that you don't need to make any turns and that straight means an arc around the earth and not through the Earth, unless someone has a very different idea what sailing means...

Line that is straight in two dimensions.

THAT would be one god damn brutal sail. Both horns, Southern Atlantic crossing followed up by the Indian Ocean.

The range of foulies you would need to bring would be 3/4 of your pack. Foulies underwear and A sock (you're going to lose one anyways)

There was a conversation I read a while ago that showed how a sailboat could travel a straight line over water from Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, travel southeast and end up on the west coast of British Columbia.

Basically sailing from the east coast of Canada to the west coast of Canada in a straight line.

I feel like this is related to the can't measure the coast' thing.

Like if you zoom in enough you are always traveling in a straight line.

Hey that's neat pulled it up in a 3d globe web app and its pretty close to straight

Why'd they go that way? They could have gone the other way and the line would have still been technically straight, but the route looks like it would have been shorter.

I dont know much about straight lines, but he sure does look happy.

TIL that "straight" can mean "curved", apparently 🤷