220
this post was submitted on 23 May 2024
220 points (97.0% liked)
Technology
59243 readers
3437 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I see on occasion people talking about the lack of flights across the southern hemisphere as being proof, very similar concept.
Standard map projection strikes again. Starting from the tip of South Africa, it's 4300 miles to Uruguay (where you'd land straight east) and 5300 to Perth, Australia. New York City is 3300 miles to Portugal and obviously the smoothest route to Australia is hopping through southeast Asia. Coincidentally, the northern hemisphere has way more population.
Cape Town is only 34° south. Going to 34°N, you're lined up with Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta USA, then Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, then the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, middle of China, southern tip of South Korea, and grazing below Tokyo. It's still 4100 miles between Georgia (USA) and Morocco.
There are no southern polar flights and no southern undersea cables because the southern continental points aren't as far south as the northern points are north. Population volume doesn't create the demand for more direct service.