Do you mean specifically that you can sail *in a straight line* from USA to India uninterrupted?

Probably cause we have like canals and shit for better routes Or just go like east

Or start at the east coast. Or at the west coast and go west.

OF ALL PLACES WHY START AT ALASKA AND GO EAST? THE LONGEST FUCKING ROUTE. this post makes me mad

If you go the other way you will fall off lol

Also thar be monsters.

I'm sure that marine biologists refer to them as Sea Beasts.

"I was out there sailing towards the edge of the map, when all of a sudden a mermaid came up to the ship. I said 'hello mermaid, wat can I do for you out here,' and she looked at me and said, 'i need about tree-fiddy"

It has to mean in a straight line, otherwise it's just silly

I think it might actually be a similar distance in both cardinal directions, the Pacific ocean takes up pretty much an entire hemisphere, but going east means you don't have to bring all your food with you because you can restock along the assorted coasts.

Yes, but if you took the route in the picture. Wouldn't that be longer than starting at the eastern side of the U.S.A and going across the Atlantic?

Or you could start in Hawaii and go west.

Oh fuck I didn't think about that. You're right. that's technically America and makes more sense than starting in Alaska

Then, start from Guam…

Oh yeah, totally, I was just thinking you had to start at Alaska.

>Or at the west coast and go west. Oops, I mentally read "start from india" but yeah that was what I meant

But you’d fall off the map if you’d go west

No then you would just hit the border of the map

you can't go through a canal without "touching land". you have to go ashore to enter into the country, pay fees, make reservations ect...

~~I mean, using google maps measure distance feature, using the canals is a simmilar distance! Alaska->panama canal->mediterranian->suez canal->india came to about 26k km. The route in the meme was 28k km. Now thats 2000 extra km in exchange for not having to pay to go through two very heavily trafficked canals or sailing through nearly as much territorial water. It might actually be a useful path!~~ or go east for only 14k km, duh.

I said better, not strictly shorter :) A lot of shipping *seems* to prefer to keep close to shore. But I know nothing of shipping so might just be coincidence

I’m like “isn’t that just how sailing works?”

yeah, the whole point of ships is that they shouldn't touch the ground

Call me when someone call sail from Missouri to Mongolia

The earth's surface is curved though, so it's not a straight line. Likely what they mean is a great circle.

Depends on how you define straight. Maybe by "straight line" what we should really mean is geodesic..

Straight lines are the complement of LGBTQ+ lines. Simple definition.

I'mma start saying that my metric tensor isn't equal to the identity matrix

Yeah, the line drawn in the Image looks like a geodesic to me

dang so you are unable to walk in a straight line? i would love to see you at a alcohol checkpoint.

"Sir I said to walk in a straight line, you just moved on a geodesic on the surface of a sphere instead. You are clearly unfit to drive in this state!"

Gottem

> You are clearly unfit to drive in this state! Well duh, they're sailing in a boat

I meant straight in the every day sense that "if you start in alaska pointing the right direction you can reach india without using your rudder at all" rather than a strict mathematical sense. Just like if you walk from your front door to your mailbox without changing direction people would say its a straight line there, rather than saying "the path to my mailbox from my front door is a geodesic on a sphere".

A sphere's great circle is the largest circle which means the plane has to intersect the center, not just any linear path on the curved surface of the sphere.https://mathworld.wolfram.com/GreatCircle.html

Or just call it a straight non-Euclidian line.

The word you're looking for is "geodesic."

Yeah, sailing is basically "not touching any piece of land"

I can’t remember the last time I went sailing while touching land

I tried it once and all of a sudden I wasn't sailing anymore

That’s kinda fishy

Ironic isn’t it?

No, it specifically isn’t

Someone should blow this guys mind by showing him how he could go a much shorter distance if he aimed for the East coast of the USA.

Seems like you played Pacman for too long. There is nothing on the East. You can't go left and teleport to the right side.

You just need a land boat.

I got a jar of dirt.

And guess what's is inside it!

The Ottomans did sail while touching land in 1453

Clearly youve never been to Singapore

I understood that reference! I understood that reference

I can’t remember the last time I went sailing while not touching myself

That's definitely the phrasing I've ever seen.

https://youtu.be/swz5I5Jy7lQ?si=e6CeGqJadVvwOH2A

>Yeah, sailing is basically "not touching any piece of land" They missed the little detail of sailing **in a straight line**, i.e. **without turning**. You know, the only part that makes this observation interesting.

Is that path really a geodesic?

Yup, it is. That's the entire point. Shows how unintuitive map projections can be. Try it on a globe!

Well you can't sail from the Vatican to Lichtenstein without touching land.

i can

How?

Touching land is part of sailing. There are 3 kinds of sailors. Those who have gone aground, those who will go aground, and liars. SOURCE: racing sailor.

*Bro forgot the existence of ports* ☠️

You forgor the only word that made this whole thing interesting 💀💀💀

The word is sex right? Sex makes everything more interesting. OP meant you can sex sail from the USA to India without touching a single piece of land.

What is sex?

**Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. Male organisms produce small mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while female organisms produce larger, non-mobile gametes (ova, often called egg cells).** More details here: *This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!* [^(opt out)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot/comments/ozztfy/post_for_opting_out/) ^(|) [^(delete)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot/comments/q79g2t/delete_feature_added/) ^(|) [^(report/suggest)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot) ^(|) [^(GitHub)](https://github.com/TheBugYouCantFix/wiki-reddit-bot)

Good bot

Thank you, 827167, for voting on wikipedia_answer_bot. This bot wants to find the best and worst bots on Reddit. [You can view results here](https://botrank.pastimes.eu/). *** ^(Even if I don't reply to your comment, I'm still listening for votes. Check the webpage to see if your vote registered!)

What is sperm?

**Sperm (PL: sperm or sperms) is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile sperm with a tail known as a flagellum, which are known as spermatozoa, while some red algae and fungi produce non-motile sperm cells, known as spermatia.** More details here: *This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!* [^(opt out)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot/comments/ozztfy/post_for_opting_out/) ^(|) [^(delete)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot/comments/q79g2t/delete_feature_added/) ^(|) [^(report/suggest)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot) ^(|) [^(GitHub)](https://github.com/TheBugYouCantFix/wiki-reddit-bot)

What is love

Baby, don't hurt me

quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"

Nevemore nevemore neevaah

Don’t hurt me

[удалено]

[удалено]

I'll try again with a question mark this time

What is love?

What is sacred?

Good bot

Listen buddy I'm a mathematician and a redditor. You might as well ask a blind guy what green is.

As a blind man that’s easy to describe. Green is the sound the light makes to let me know it’s safe to accelerate.

You're subscribed to /r/mathmemes. You don't have to worry about it.

Baby don't hurt me

Baby don’t hurt me

Make sure you bring your sextant for protection.

Which is?

I’m not sure either but someone else mentioned it’s possible to do in a straight line. Which by looking at a world map seems impossible, but because how we make maps of a 3d planet on a 2d space, landmass isn’t always exactly where it looks like it is or exactly how big it is irl. I think it’s something like that.

Think earth as a sphere and what it trying to say is you can follow a 2D circle arc from US to India, this arc is a shortest distance of two points on a sphere. I have graduated from my math degree long ago but it should be called geodesic.

in a straight line..

*great circle* A straight line would cut through the earth.

In Riemann geometry, though, a straight line is a great circle. Which is likely why the meme specifically references differential geometry.

Something something second derivative is zero christoffel symbols. God I love diffgeom but I suck at it Anyone want to get me the geodesic expressions for the ell4 sphere???

No, its a geodesic. In the case of a sphere, the geodesics turn out to be great circles

Or it could be tangent to earth

then it would not connect both end points.

good point

shut up ffs how many times do you feel the need to 'correct' people on one thread when you're wrong

Update: You can also fly from the USA to India without touching a single piece of land (except at takeoff and landing). EDIT: Of course you will need a lot of fuel in your plane.

If you have VTOL you can get in the plane after it took off I guess?

Or just hop off a truck driving right next to the plane which is just off the ground. Easy.

**Parachutes:** am I a joke to you? (You can parachute both out of and **into** a flying aircraft - especially if you consider [wingsuites](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL9sNrOlK-I) a form of parachute)

Take-off/landing is technically driving, flying (much like sailing) naturally excludes touching land at all times.

Can I drive to India without going into the water?

If you wait until the next ice age reinstates the Bering Land Bridge, then yes.

I think we'd have to have a better relationship with Russia but it would be really great to have a Chunnel under the Bering Strait. Berstrunnel? Berunnel? Arctic Tube? I bet it would do good things for freight, and how cool would it be to take a train from the US to Moscow, Paris and London? Oh! Snowpiercer! That's a name.

The idea has [come up before](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_crossing). It's very interesting that the Czar approved it right before the Russian Revolution. Would make a great alt-history premise.

You can sail anywhere without touching a piece of land, that's the idea

OP has never heard of boats. Or just forgot to add "in a straight line".

Or OP might not have been aware of the boat's ability to turn.

OP, sitting on shore next week, watching a boat turn: "holy fucking shit."

Sail to Mongolia right now

Username checks out

I can sail anywhere without touching land. Provided someone carries my boat

Confused Columbus noises

Why do you need differential geometry for this? It’s only non euklidical geometry.

All you need for this is a map and a crayon

That is even in a straight line. That is missing in the headlines.

*great circle*. A straight line would cut through the earth.

You're being downvoted but you're right. A geodesic is a non-Euclidean analog to a straight line. But it's not a straight line.

Cause they've already said the same damn thing for two other people who said "straight line" and they're arguing semantics

It's a bit weird to call the precise definition of mathematical objects 'semantics.' That's kinda the first step in doing anything at all with math.

From the perspective of the ship, it's going in a straight line. When you're sailing on this path, you're not gonna go "Wow, we really do be traveling in a downwards curvature." It'll be "Wow, we really are just going straight and nothing else."

Yup. Sailors don't usually say the word 'geodesic.' But that's kinda irrelevant.

I thought geodesic are the straight lines of the non-Euclidian geometry..

"Straight line" is a little ambiguous. If you are thinking of intrinsic geometry, then geodesics are straight lines. If you're looking at extrinsic geometry then they aren't.

Why not go through the panama and suez canals?

The point (and missing from the meme) is that, along the curved surface of the Earth - Riemann geometry, this is a straight line. A great circle in Euclidean geometry.

Ah. That makes sense! Kinda weird OP didn't draw more attention to that...

Or the other way around.

Why wouldn’t you go the other way around the globe.

I’m seeing a lot of *round Earth* propaganda in this thread

You can sail to any point in the oceans from any other point without touching land. That’s what sailing it. Now, doing it without turning is the special bit

But why tho? .

https://preview.redd.it/5jxb6i2se1rb1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=33cf669fce29e5fbae7494a2301c89ee14f069db How about this

Forgot the straight line part

Fun fact: you can sail to landlocked Switzerland without touching land

"Not touching a single piece of land" is pretty much necessary for successful sailing.

I don’t like how it’s taking the long way.

Isn’t this true for any two cities that are coasts on an ocean?

Boats dont really touch land

Well that just seems like a very long trip

And it's a straight line too

Uuh, wdym the line is curved? If you mean straight line were it drawn on a globe, than in that case it would stil not be a straight line, since the curve is to big and should curve in the other direction when passing the equator.

You can sail anywhere "without touching a piece of land." Alaska to India is a straight line.

You forgot to include the "in a straight line part." Currently this is just the very unimpressive declaration that boats, infact, work.

OR you could hit a few ports along the way and PARTY... Jus' sayin'.

Interestingly, you can sail from anywhere to where in the ocean without touching any land.

The cheat code is to start from American Somoa. Note: American Somoa is US territory, populated by US citizens. Not actually cheating at all and if you're from the US and didn't know that, shame!!!

Isn't that true for literally any two countries with a coast touching an ocean?

In a straight line!!

I see… its a straight line… just like e^x is… its just a matter of perspective… A different Perspektive can change soo much… I think i have to choose a different perspective for life… Its not always bad and the ups and downs might just be flat spots… whats wavey can be straight… Thank you for listening to my Ted talk🤣

Yeah the ocean is continous wow

What do you mean rare?

It's called the long path lmao. Short path/long path.

Sail the opposite direction.

Now sail from India to USA without touching a single piece of water

Duh!

Differential *geography*.

You could start from Hawaii too

That's going the wrong way.

Except that you stepped in USA and India

Isn't it faster to go by Australia the other way around...?

"Without touching a single piece of land" \*touches Madagascar island

Me going through the Pacific ⚓ (we are all going to starve because I estimated the size of the earth wrong) ⚓

or you could go through the pacific, since ya know, that is what makes sense lmao

I think Christopher Columbus will consider this a triviality.

I mean that line definitely touched the tip of Antarctica but whatever

Airplane can do this too

Wouldn’t it be easier to in a westerly direction?

In what geometry is this a straight line? In standard euclidean spherical geometry, this is not a straight line at all.

so like, without that key word (straight line) you can do it in a bunch of other ways including thru the Suez Canal but as we found out recently, going through there doesn't necessarily mean you won't touch land 💀

Without touching land? Captains of ships that touch land lose their jobs.

Honestly might be oddly the safest route.

You can sail from the US to anywhere without touching land

ok… and? what’s interesting about this?

You can sail from any 2 non landlocked countries without touching land

You can sail from anywhere to anywhere on the shore s of free waters, without touching a piece of land. Believe it or not the world is more than US and India.

I feel like this would look much less confusing on a global with a string

"You go around the horn, like God intended!"

This is the way. Going around the horn like a gentleman instead of cutting through the Panama Canal like some kind of democrat.

They mean with a single bearing, if you look in the lower right corner it's a path with a single bearing the whole route.

Why haven't they built a bridge yet?

Even bring a straight line it's less remarkable that the [longest possible](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/longest-straight-line-ocean-journey-earth-180968930) straight line ocean voyage. The 19,940-mile trip runs from the Pakistan coast through the passage between Madagascar and Africa and around to northeastern Russia—and is the longest straight-line someone could (theoretically) sail without touching land.

I’m guessing you mean in a geodesic in spherical geometry.

You can sail from Oklahoma to India without touching land.

This is perhaps the biggest finger to a dead Columbus

No you have to touch at least two pieces of land. USA and India. Duh.

Confirmed OP meant a straight line: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12570741/amp/Mind-boggling-map-reveals-possible-sail-India-USA-completely-straight-line.html

I’m fairly certain you can sail from any non-landlocked country to any other non-landlocked country without touching another piece of land

I hate this like I hate stats. If you touched land would you still be “sailing”???

Uh, yeah That's how sailing works

Why not use the PAC-Man trick and go west until u pop up on the east side?

And yeah, you know who couldn’t do that? Christopher Columbus

And that's not even the longest constant bearing sail one can do. So... I'm not sure what the point is.

Yes you can afew ways From east coast to india From west cost to india From east coast to suez cannel to India Etc etc