Sydney to Lisbon: 18,166km
Sydney to Reykjavik: 16,605km
By looking at a globe or map, this makes absolutely no sense…
In: Physics
You go to Sydney to Reykjavik from the South-East direction and Sydney to Lisbon from the North-West direction. If you measure the distance from an actual globe map, and not a paper map you will see it.
The fastest way from Sydney to Reyjavik is fly [straight up through Japan, through the north pole, and down to Iceland](https://www.distance.to/Reykjavik/Sydney). On a globe, that’s easier to see. It’s hard to tell that that’s the fastest route on a rectangular map that stretches out the north pole from a point to an entire side of the map and distorts the size of Europe and Russia.
That route is shorter than the Lisbon route that goes across the Indian Ocean, Middle East, and Mediterranean.
[removed]
If you look at it on a map, then no it really doesn’t make sense – the problem here is that a map is an attempt to represent a 3D thing (the earth) on a 2D surface. When you try and make a map of the earth, in order to fit it into a rectangle you end up stretching the bits near the poles and/or squashing the stuff closer to the equator – that’s why, for instance, Africa looks to be about the same size as North America whereas it’s actually quite a bit larger.
So, let’s go back to our globe – if you have an actual globe then great, you can follow along – you’ll also need a bit of string. If not, try and do this in your head – it’s not quite as good but I’ll give you some links that might help a bit later on.
Start with Sydney to Lisbon – stretch the string out between the two and see how long it is – make a note of the sort of route that it takes. Now do the same with Sydney and Reykjavik.
The route that your bit of string takes is called the Great Circle track – it’s the shortest route between two points on the surface of the planet. You should see that the Sydney-Lisbon track goes pretty much straight across Africa and across the equator. If you look at the Sydney-Reykjavik route then you’ll find it heads through east Asia and Russia – it’s not just a case of going to Lisbon and carrying on a bit, the most direct route goes nowhere near Lisbon.
There’s a tool that shows these on a flat map and this is where it gets a bit weird – remember what I said about flat maps really distorting the shape of the planet.
Let’s start with our [Lisbon route](http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=syd-lis&MS=wls&DU=km) – it’s a bit wavy, but nothing unexpected. Remember, this is a straight bit of string if you stretch it out on a globe.
OK, now [Reykjavik](http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=syd-kef&MS=wls&DU=km) – this is where it gets odd. Again, I want you to remember that this is a direct route if you’re travelling it on a 3D globe but because of the way we’ve distorted the globe in trying to flatten it onto a rectangular map, it’s really distorted.
TL;DR – maps are weird but if you look at it on the surface of a 3D globe you’ll take a completely different route to Reykjavik – it’s not just a case of going to Lisbon and then carrying on a bit further north.
Latest Answers