How long would it take to get to Australia?

Question

This is for a story. A woman left Seattle, Washington at 9 PM, how long would it take for her to get to Canberra, Australia, and what time would it be there, according to the time she left (9 PM).

And would it be faster to travel West from Seattle to get to Canberra? Or travel East?

Thank you,

Kate

Answer 1

The trick is for you to go to Vancouver in Canada, and then fly to Sydney. The great circle route which flies over the north pole to Sydney is the shortest distance.  (Only Air Canada has a direct flight available at this point)

I've included a link to Air Canada below so you can work out the traveling time from the flight schedules.

A great circle route is the shortest distance between two places on the earth. You can try it yourself by getting a globe and running a piece of string between two places. When the string is pulled tight it will show you the great circle route.

(I'll include a link to an on line version below).

Once in Sydney it's a short commuter flight to Canberra.

Going via San Francisco will take the Hawaii route and is a lot longer.

As bit bit of trivia:

The only airline using the southern great circle route is South African Airways who fly between South Africa and Singapore. Flying over the South Pole is the shortest route between these countries. I often see the vapour trails of that jet every Wednesday evening from my home in Perth.

Having a little micro story on "great circle route" in your story might be worth some extra credit.

Answer 2

Since you're writing a story, you could make up the fact of a direct flight (there are none from Seattle).  If it were direct, it would be about 14 hours.  

However, in reality with all the connections (San Francisco plus one additional stop in Australia), it takes about 24-30 hours.  She'd get there about 8:00 PM plus two days.

Answer 3

It took my friend two months sailing.