Language & WorldFact
Why your flight to Tokyo goes over Siberia.
On a sphere, the shortest path is a great circle, a circle centred on Earth's core. On a flat map it looks like an arc bending north. Frankfurt–Tokyo therefore crosses Siberia, and New York–Hong Kong passes almost over the North Pole. The straight line on the map would actually be thousands of kilometres longer.
Useful: A piece of string on a globe shows the true route better than any world map.
Source: en.wikipedia.org