Which great circle that you can draw around the Earth passes through the most countries? In the way that the equator goes through 11? I don't know the answer and a cursory google doesn't seem to offer an immediate one either.
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A geography great circle question
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- Mar 2008
- 3387
- at the edge of the sea
- Plymouth Argyle, Plymouth Gladiators, Seattle Mariners
- cream crackers spread with nutella
That's impressive forensic work though the latitude answers aren't technically great circles. I do wonder if his Togo-Tobago line was tilted slightly so more of South America then up through Africa into the Middle East and maybe then across the 'Stans, it would see the number of countries rocket.
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- Oct 2011
- 26998
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
For example, the great circle through Malaga and Ho Chi Minh City looks like it has potential:
https://www.greatcirclemap.com/roadmap?routes=AGP-SGN
But you have to extrapolate the rest of the circle.
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Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostI was previously unaware of the concept of lines of longitude and latitude having an appreciable width.
Is that an Americanism? If so, does one create it by artificially limiting the number of decimal places used in degree measurements?
Anyway, that was an amazing piece of research. And is it just me, or is the "Togo-Tobago line" an incredibly satisfying name?
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Originally posted by Kevin S View PostFor example, the great circle through Malaga and Ho Chi Minh City looks like it has potential:
https://www.greatcirclemap.com/roadmap?routes=AGP-SGN
But you have to extrapolate the rest of the circle.
Great website. Mucking around with it I found a route from Durban to Helsinki, taking in 22 countries. That increases to 24 when you continue north through Sweden and Norway, it's too much for my head to try and work out what happens when you go over the top and all the way around to complete the circle
https://www.greatcirclemap.com/roadm...tes=%20DUR-HEL
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- Oct 2011
- 26998
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
One of the amusing things about it is realising that for most pairs of places there is one route - the shorter arc of the great circle - that is the shortest. But if those places are antipodal then there's an infinite number of equal-distance routes. (This is of course when you model earth as a perfect sphere.)
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Originally posted by Kevin S View PostOne of the amusing things about it is realising that for most pairs of places there is one route - the shorter arc of the great circle - that is the shortest. But if those places are antipodal then there's an infinite number of equal-distance routes. (This is of course when you model earth as a perfect sphere.)
Shouldn’t be hard.
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