Why do planes flying from San Francisco to Tokyo move northwards to Alaska first instead of flying in a straight line?

I notice they fly northwards to alaska and than around the earth and then head back southwards towards Japan. Isnt a straight line faster? Is it for safety reasons- closer to land?

Asked by Devilicious 58 months ago Similar questions: planes flying San Francisco Tokyo move northwards Alaska straight line Transportation.

Similar questions: planes flying San Francisco Tokyo move northwards Alaska straight line.

Because it is the shortest line and you can see it that way if you look at globe The maps do not show the shortest distance between points because that would alter the shape of the ground. It is really a compromise to make the round earth into a flat map and there are compromises. Great Circle: What is a Great Circle?

SCIENCE ts: 102 Updated On: 1/15/2007 A straight line drawn between two places on a world map looks like the shortest distance between them. But this usually isn’t so, because most maps are distorted. Take a look at a globe.

If you stretch a piece of string over the globe, joining Japan and Denmark, you will see that the shortest route runs over the North Pole, not from east to west. The curved line joining Japan and Denmark is part of a Great Circle. This is any circle that divided the globe into two equal halves.

Aircraft and ships often follow Great Circle routes. Sources: http://www.4to40.com/qa/index.asp?id=955&category=science .

Great Circle Routes They actually are traveling in a straight line, but straight on a spherical globe, not a flat map. If you have a globe handy, take a piece of string and put one end at Tokyo and the other at San Francisco, then pull it tight. The string will map out the shortest path, which will arch up north, toward alaska, before coming back down to Tokyo.

This is called a "Great Circle Route" (named, because if you continued on that path, all the way around the globe, you'd draw a circle, with the center of the circle being the center of the earth) Great Circles are always the shortest path between two points on a sphere. A reason that you may see planes fly routes that are not great circle routes could involve issues like paying air traffic control fees (Canada charges more than the US, for example), or ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operations, which sets rules for twin engine airplanes, requiring them to always be within a certain distance of land, in case of engine failure. And lastly, weather (flights will often be vectored around storms).

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_circle, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS .

It is the shortest route Take a globe, find the two cities, draw a straight line, and you will see that it is exactly the route that planes follow, give or take a few miles.

It is a straight line it is a straight line. It only looks curved because the earth is. You're looking at a flat map (euclidian geometry) or a curved planet.

Additionally, commercial pilots are allowed to choose their own paths, whihc they then file with the FAA, so it may not always be precisely the same, thought generally, it is always a straight line.

Yes, being closer to land is probably why The distance between Alaska and Russia is quite small, meaning they are close to land for most of the trip. This is a requirement for airlines so they don't get into trouble. Sources: My knowledge .

I am trying to find information on public transportation from San Jose to San Francisco.

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