Great Circle Route

[PDH]

Can someone, in simple terms (for us simple people), explain the great circle route. I'm still having trouble grasping why you have to fly over northern Alaska to get to China. Is it because the earth rotates towards you while you fly?

 

[Gorilla]

It's because a flat map distorts a round world.

You can prove to yourself quite simply that a great circle route really does look like what you describe. Get a string, and a globe. Stretch the string between any two points on the globe to discover the shortest route between those two points.

A GC route to Asia from the middle of the U.S. does in fact fly over alaska or the Arctic.

The Earth's rotation does nothing, as the atmosphere (and the aircraft) are rotating all together.

 

[bigboeings]

Easiest way to picture it is put a string on a globe. First go straight point to point then go via great circle. The earth has a smaller circumference further north you go, taking advantage of this makes it shorter

 

[bigboeings]

Wow simultaneous posting.

 

[G21Agoose]

The earth is an oblate spheroid. Unforrtunately, so is my wife's ass.

 

[G21Agoose]

Not to be confused with a prolate spheroid- which is the shape of my girlfriend's **********.

 

[flyguybri]

Here's a website that will show routes

http://gc.kls2.com/

 

[cheyflyer]

Here's a website that will show routes

http://gc.kls2.com/

Could someone post a link to G21Agoose's girlfriends Prolated Spheroidal thingy.:0

 

[CutEmUp]

A great circle route is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of the Earth. To figure out what this route this is, just draw a straight line on a sectional or other navigation chart. (Or any chart that is a Lambert Conformal Conic Projection, I think most aviation charts are.)

Another way to think of it is this. If you want to fly from New York to Zurich, imagine slicing the Earth in half so that this slice goes through both New York and Zurich. This is the great circle route. Also, every line of longitude is a great circle route.

Just a start, someone else with more knowledge or more motivation to actually look stuff up may be able to chime in with more info.

 

[Metro752]

Can someone, in simple terms (for us simple people), explain the great circle route. I'm still having trouble grasping why you have to fly over northern Alaska to get to China. Is it because the earth rotates towards you while you fly?

did u grajuate high SKOOL?