In between getting ready for the arrival of my cousin and his girlfriend, I have been checking the progress of their flight on a website called "FlightAware". Earlier when I took this photo of my laptop screen, their flight was approaching the coast of Greenland.
When looking at a flat map, it would seem that the shortest route between two points would be a straight line. This circular route looks as if it would be going far out of the way. But in fact, when dealing with a three dimensional globe, the shortest distance is an arc. Most trans-Atlantic flights circle far to the north into Arctic regions. On several flights home from Europe I have looked out the window and viewed Greenland with its glaciers and coastline indented with fjords.
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