The One Minute Geographer: A Flight from New York to Tokyo
A globe is a strange thing. You’re going to fly from New York to Tokyo, a 13.5 hour trip, and you may be thinking “Well, about 6 hours to California and then the rest over the Pacific; maybe I’ll get to look down and see Hawaii.” Here’s a typical map projection you might look at:
But look again at the Great Circle Route on the globe at the top of this post. That red line shows how you will actually get there. So I hope you like Canada, Alaska and Russia. If you don’t believe me, get that globe out of the attic that your grandparents gave you when you were in high school, take a piece of string to connect New York and Tokyo, and see for yourself.
And will you get to see Hawaii? No way. You won’t fly anywhere near Hawaii. Keep in mind that Hawaii is our southernmost state, farther south than Florida, and, in fact, the southern part of the big island of Hawaii is south of Cuba.
Did I say a globe is a strange thing? Correction: flat maps are strange things.
I’m a retired geography professor who writes posts called The One Minute Geographer. Follow me on Medium or click this link for an email (a few posts…
