When airplanes go from one city to another, why do they curve around instead of going straight there?

Question

Like for example, I took a flight from from italy to new York, and isntead of going in a straight line, they curve around toward greenland and canada instead of going straight across the atlantic.

Answer 1

They do this for a couple of reasons,

First, the Polar routes are shorter. The diameter of the Earth is smaller the further north or south you are. Shorter flights means less fuel used.

Second, if there is a problem with the plane or with weather, there are places they can land.

Answer 2

It's because of the Coriolis effect.  Once a plane takes off it is not rotating with the Earth anymore, so when it goes "straight" the rotation of the Earth "moves" the destination.  If the plane went in a straight line it would miss the target, and you'd end up somewhere you weren't wanting to go.

See this wikipedia article for more explanation and a demonstration.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_ef...

And like they said above the Earth is round and not flat like a map.

Answer 3

first reason, the world is a globe - a globe is round and not flat

second reason, it is the international airline route for Atlantic flights from Europe to North-America

third reason, it is the straightes and shortest distance

check it on a globe - not on a map ;-)

Answer 4

for fuel, you silly goose! =]

Answer 5

It could be because that is the flight path they have chosen in order not to collide into any other planes & for fuel & the different airspaces they have to go through to get there

Answer 6

They do that to avoid flying over people's houses. Much too noisy. Also they may not want to get stranded at sea.

Answer 7

Because the earth is round.

Answer 8

its actually a straight line, but it appears curved because, the earth is not flat, its round so the path the plane follows appears curved.

you can use a string on a globe, and try to make a straight line with a string from one place to the other, the string wont be straight, but curved with the surface from one point to the other. its also a view point, it wont be straight on a flat surface, but its flat on a curved surface.

hope this helps.

Answer 9

It depends on the wind and the fuel consumption. Also it could be they are stopping off in a city before continuing to the final destination. Air Traffic Control sets the routes to offer the best routing while saving as much fuel as possible. If there were thunderstorms over Denver then they would re-route the flight over New Mexico or further south. It is also for safety reasons.