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Crossing an entire country in a straight line

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Re: Crossing an entire country in a straight line

#21

Post by ionwake »

wasmitnetzen wrote: post #10
ekzy wrote: post #4

Nice :) Is it valid though? I thought you might have had to swim across the harbour because there's more of the country on the other side of it

GeoWizard (the "inventor" of this sport) goes waterline-to-waterline or border-to-waterline. Of course, it's an entirely arbitrary rule, but so is every other rule in sports.

I feel strongly about this subject as I actually travelled to liechtenstein to do the same , I failed, which I am at peace with.

My problem with is, a margin of error of 25 meters for a run of less than a km isnt what I would call platinum, my gripe here is with geowizard. I feel the error margin should increase for each km, for example by one meter. So a straight line across a continent allows for a larger margin of error, but 1km , well you better stick to the line.

I know noone will read this but I had to let it out.

Its not coming form a bad place I just want better rules!

Re: Crossing an entire country in a straight line

#23

Post by dmurray »

mkl wrote: post #14

What counts as across? In New Zealand, following Auckland's Portage Road would pretty much do it: https://www.google.com/maps/@-36.9356481,174.8371974,440m/da... (zoom out to see why) Australia though? I suppose you could count the northern tip of Queensland, but it doesn't seem very "across".

First one doesn't look any "worse" than Geowizard's crossing of Norway [0]. Second one feels like it's not in the spirit of things, but I have trouble coming up with an adequately rigorous definition.

I was thinking of saying Norway and New Zealand look OK because in both cases you start on the eastern border/coast and finish on the western one, unlike Queensland where you are still in the northeast by any definition. This gets close to my intent, but to make this work we have to accept that NZ has multiple east coasts, or a single discontinuous one. Why is it OK to cross the North Island in NZ, but not OK to cross some tiny island in Australia (e.g. cross King Island [1] from west to east)?

[0] https://imgur.com/gallery/gistDx1 [1] https://goo.gl/maps/Q5JEN1j3U4sBMEvf6

Re: Crossing an entire country in a straight line

#24

Post by Turing_Machine »

leokennis wrote: post #13

I would be interested to know which is the longest distance straight line crossing of a country I could do, without having to go through a building or having to swim. Maybe some country in North Africa, that is mainly desert?

A North African country sounds reasonable. Australia might be another possibility.

If you did allow river crossings, maybe Russia or Canada? There's a whole lot of empty space in Siberia and northern Canada.

Re: Crossing an entire country in a straight line

#25

Post by kijin »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #24
leokennis wrote: post #13

I would be interested to know which is the longest distance straight line crossing of a country I could do, without having to go through a building or having to swim. Maybe some country in North Africa, that is mainly desert?

A North African country sounds reasonable. Australia might be another possibility. If you did allow river crossings, maybe Russia or Canada? There's a whole lot of empty space in Siberia and northern Canada.

If you're willing to be a little more flexible with the definition of a country, many U.S. states and Canadian provinces look fairly easy to cross in a straight line. They contain long, straight stretches of roads, and even their borders are straight lines. You might as well just walk or drive along the fence.

Re: Crossing an entire country in a straight line

#26

Post by mdrzn »

ionwake wrote: post #21
wasmitnetzen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GeoWizard (the "inventor" of this sport) goes waterline-to-waterline or border-to-waterline. Of course, it's an entirely arbitrary rule, but so is every other rule in sports.

I feel strongly about this subject as I actually travelled to liechtenstein to do the same , I failed, which I am at peace with. My problem with is, a margin of error of 25 meters for a run of less than a km isnt what I would call platinum, my gripe here is with geowizard. I feel the error margin should increase for each km, for example by one meter. So a straight line across a continent allows for a larger margin of…

The OP used GeoWizard's measurements for the points (like less than 25m for Platinum) but GeoWizard usually goes for waaaaay longer than 1km. So the "fault" is on OP, if at all.

Re: Crossing an entire country in a straight line

#28

Post by SiempreViernes »

dmurray wrote: post #23
mkl wrote: post #14

What counts as across? In New Zealand, following Auckland's Portage Road would pretty much do it: https://www.google.com/maps/@-36.9356481,174.8371974,440m/da... (zoom out to see why) Australia though? I suppose you could count the northern tip of Queensland, but it doesn't seem very "across".

First one doesn't look any "worse" than Geowizard's crossing of Norway [0]. Second one feels like it's not in the spirit of things, but I have trouble coming up with an adequately rigorous definition. I was thinking of saying Norway and New Zealand look OK because in both cases you start on the eastern border/coast and finish on the western one, unlike Queensland where you are still in the northeast by any definition…

I mean, it's ok to cross King Island? But plainly that's just crossing a particular island and not Australia proper.

Not sure what's so strange about having two coasts if you've already accepted that New Zealand is composed of at least two important islands.

Re: Crossing an entire country in a straight line

#29

Post by k__ »

kijin wrote: post #17
ttoinou wrote: post #6

Straight line in 3D or on a specific 2D projection ?

Straight line in 3D would usually require digging underground. Maybe you could do it in an airplane. Compensate for the curvature of the Earth by varying your altitude. This will probably work up to a distance of a few hundred miles.

It could work by flying from high border mountains in small countries.
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