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Longest Straight Line Paths on Water or Land on the Earth (2018)

arxiv.org

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Re: Longest Straight Line Paths on Water or Land on the Earth (2018)

#2
The paper is basically like this (spoiler alert):

“Some random user on Reddit posted a picture claiming that this is the longest straight line path on water possible on the Earth. We implemented a smart algorithm to solve this problem, found the elevation data, ran our algorithm... yes, that random user was right. Also, here's the longest path on land.”

Thanks, I really enjoyed reading it, even though I hoped that they would disprove the original claim!

Edit: here are the gcmap links to the two paths: sea [1], land [2].

[1]: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=25%B017%27N+66%B040%27E-58%B037...

[2]: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=24%B033%27N+118%B038%27E-37%B02...

Re: Longest Straight Line Paths on Water or Land on the Earth (2018)

#7
post #5

> Figure 9: Longest Drivable Straight Line Path on Earth. Walkable, maybe, but definitely not drivable (it crosses directly over the Alps, for example).

There might be icebergs or sandbars or rocks or volcanic activity or wars blocking the sailing route too. They seem like equivalents.

The longest mettled straight route with minimal deviation would also be an interesting exercise.

Re: Longest Straight Line Paths on Water or Land on the Earth (2018)

#10
post #7
post #5

> Figure 9: Longest Drivable Straight Line Path on Earth. Walkable, maybe, but definitely not drivable (it crosses directly over the Alps, for example).

There might be icebergs or sandbars or rocks or volcanic activity or wars blocking the sailing route too. They seem like equivalents. The longest mettled straight route with minimal deviation would also be an interesting exercise.

Extremely highly inprobable vs 100% there and directly impassable unless walking & doing some proper alpinism is hardly equivalent
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