I just did some checks with online tools and I need someone to double check my findings and validate my method.
I looked at the straight line distance between Paris and New York, along with the difference in lat.
I then did the same thing between Cape Town and Buenos Aires.
There is approx 1-2 degrees difference in distance, I'm working it out by hand at the moment so not totally accurate. At the equator, 1 degree of separation should be around 70 miles, this would be less the farther north or south you go.
Yet an online resource listing showing straight line differences between two points shows a difference between the two measurements of over 640 miles. (the cities below the equator being the farther apart).
This would only be true (assuming my sources are accurate) if the lat. lines below the equator continue to diverge, rather than converge back towards the south pole.
Coild someone please check my sanity, I'm sure I must have missed something as I'm rushing.
I just did some checks with online tools and I need someone to double check my findings and validate my method.
I looked at the straight line distance between Paris and New York, along with the difference in lat.
I then did the same thing between Cape Town and Buenos Aires.
There is approx 1-2 degrees difference in distance, I'm working it out by hand at the moment so not totally accurate. At the equator, 1 degree of separation should be around 70 miles, this would be less the farther north or south you go.
Yet an online resource listing showing straight line differences between two points shows a difference between the two measurements of over 640 miles. (the cities below the equator being the farther apart).
This would only be true (assuming my sources are accurate) if the lat. lines below the equator continue to diverge, rather than converge back towards the south pole.
Coild someone please check my sanity, I'm sure I must have missed something as I'm rushing.
"great circle route"
That doesn't explain the discrepancy at all.