Mesmerizing Map Illustrates a Straight Line Route from India to the USA, Defying Expectations

Social media users have been trying to make sense of this map which shows that it is possible to navigate directly from India to the US in a completely straight line.

In theory, budding sailors could set out from India and arrive 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) later in far eastern Alaska without once touching the helm or touching land.

His round-the-world journey would take him within eight miles (13 kilometers) of the coast of Madagascar and skirt around Antarctica passing through the icy King George Island before crossing the entire Pacific Ocean.

While Antarctica’s ocean currents and ice sheets can make this route virtually impossible, many commenters on the post shared on X (formerly Twitter) user Epic Maps were amazed by this discovery.

Even Elon Musk, CEO of X, was impressed and simply said, “Woah.”

Meanwhile, other commenters seemed to be preparing for their own adventure, noting that the route was getting “pretty close to Antarctica” and that they’d “always wanted to see that place.”

But if this map seems a little less straightforward, you wouldn’t be alone.

Commenters on X (formerly Twitter) were skeptical of what appears to show a clearly curved line.

“This line is far from straight,” said one confused commenter, while another added “it’s not straight though.”

Other social media users questioned whether the map’s creator really knew what they were talking about, asking, “Do you know what a straight line is?”

However, although it may not appear straight on a two-dimensional map, this line is, in fact, “straight” when drawn on a globe.

Obviously, you can’t have a line on a sphere that is perfectly straight in all dimensions; that would be like trying to wrap a ruler around the surface of the balloon.

What it means to say that a line is straight on the surface of a sphere is to say that it does not turn left or right but forms a continuous line in one direction.

Instead of a ruler, this would be like wrapping a rubber band or a piece of rope around the world. If you put that band in the right place, it could connect Alaska and India without touching any other piece of land.

While Antarctica’s ocean currents and ice sheets could make this route virtually impossible, many commenters on the post shared on X (formerly Twitter) user Epic Maps were amazed by this discovery. Even Elon Musk, CEO of X, was impressed and simply said, “Woah.”

Not everyone was so convinced by the map, with one user joking: “this line is far from straight.”

The secret behind this mind-blowing puzzle lies in the way we create and read maps.

Any time you want to render a 3D object in 2D, you will need to “project” the surface of that object onto the flat surface.

For most of our maps, we use a type of mathematical transformation called a Mercator projection to represent the spherical Earth on a flat surface that is much more practical for navigation than a globe.

The Mercator projection was invented by the Flemish cartographer Geradus Mercator in 1569 and became popular for its usefulness for navigation at sea.

The Mercator projection ensures that sailors can use lines of latitude and longitude to plot a straight course and maintains the shapes of continental masses, even though the size of countries is greatly distorted.

Because our flat maps use this projection, straight lines like this route called “great circles” appear to curve.

This is the same reason why international flights seem to take long detours instead of flying in a “straight” line to their destination.

However, the route from India to Alaska is not even the longest possible straight-line trip there is.

In 2012, a Reddit user named Kepleronlyknows claimed to have found the longest possible straight-line sea voyage, stretching nearly 20,000 miles (32,089 km) from Pakistan to Russia. The route runs between Madagascar and Mozambique before plunging into the southernmost point of South America.

In 2012, a Reddit user named Kepleronlyknows claimed to have found the longest possible straight-line sea voyage, stretching nearly 20,000 miles (32,089 km) from Pakistan to Russia.

The route runs between Madagascar and Mozambique before plunging beneath the southernmost point of South America.

Inspired by this publication, computer scientists Rohan Chabukswar of the United Technologies Research Center in Ireland and Kushal Mukherjee of IBM Research in India developed an algorithm that could find the longest possible routes on Earth.

Not only did they prove Kepleronlyknows right, they also went a step further and found the longest possible straight-line journey over land.

So, if you’re planning your next road trip, you can drive the epic 6,984-mile (11,241 km) route from Fujian, China, to Portugal without even turning the wheel.

WHAT IS THE FLAT EARTH THEORY?

Those who believe in the flat Earth theory claim that our planet is shaped like a flat disk rather than a sphere.

Because the Earth’s surface looks and feels flat when we walk around it, conspiracy theorists denounce any evidence to the contrary.

The leading theory suggests that the Earth is a disk with the Arctic Circle in the center and Antarctica, a 45-meter-high wall of ice, around the edge.

Those who believed in the flat Earth theory claim that our planet is shaped like a flat disk instead of a sphere. Pictured is a model presented to attendees at the first Annual International Flat Earth Conference, held in North Carolina in November 2017.

Theorists claim that satellite images and evidence pointing to a spherical Earth are part of a “round Earth conspiracy” orchestrated by NASA and other government agencies.

Proponents of this strange theory also claim that the Earth is stationary in space rather than orbiting the sun.

Some believe that the Earth is covered by a glass dome that sits on top of the flat disk.

The international scientific community has consistently denounced the flat Earth theory.

Decades of space imagery and peer-reviewed astronomical research back up their claims.

NASA has proven that the Earth is round using satellites, GPS and images taken from space, but ‘flat earthers’ believe the space agency is lying.