3 ms·

I don't think it is negativity. Someone else already called it out, but if you were to face east and then travel in a straight line, you would leave Earth's orb

I don't think it is negativity. Someone else already called it out, but if you were to face east and then travel in a straight line, you would leave Earth's orbit. Thus, the question inherently is taking Earth into consideration. Their definition of "most obvious" is strange because you would encode a globe using spherical coordinates. A "straight line" East in spherical coordinates could be argued to be keeping the polar angle constant and increasing the azimuthal angle which would land you in France. The crux of the disagreement is what "most obvious" means.

brokencode 2y ago
Idk, I think it’s pretty clear based on the description what they mean. For one, the problem description says the straight line is “along the Earth’s surface” so I don’t think you can reasonably think it might go into space. And to me it seems reasonable to say a straight line means not turning. I personally imagined getting in a plane and going straight forward, assuming there is no wind to blow me off course. That is just the common understanding of straight. If somebody asks you to walk in a straight line, do you ask them what coordinate system they’re using? No, you walk forward without turning. I guess “most obvious” can always be up to interpretation, though.
- hervature 2y ago
  I think if you were to ask someone not trained in navigation "to fly straight" between two points on the globe, they are probably not going to come up with the concept of great circles and most likely will end up turning a bunch during their flight "to fly straight". I could be wrong but I think "most obvious" if we are defining it as "the most natural thing most people would do without explicit training" then the article is wrong and this thread would agree with this conclusion. I don't disagree that it is possible to deduce the great circle if you think about it and have the knowledge to coordinate systems. But why even ask the question this way when you can get to the core of the question by explicitly asking "Along the great circle that reaches its max latitude at Seattle, what's the next country it touches going eastward from Seattle?" This would yield many more correct answers and why people think its mostly wordplay (because it is).
  - brokencode 2y ago
    The problem just says to fly straight, not straight between two points. Though this thread is proof that a lot of people interpreted it differently, so all I can say is that I personally think it makes sense. Even so, my guess after a very brief thought about it was actually Canada, so this understanding didn’t help me any :) I had never heard of this concept of “great circles” before, so it personally wouldn’t have made it clearer to me without some research. Given my ignorance on this topic, I found the fact that Australia was the first country you’d hit to be really quite remarkable.
- mbrameld 2y ago
  > the straight line is “along the Earth’s surface” Well, you've already run into a problem, because any line that follows the Earth's surface can't possibly be straight.
rprenger 2y ago
Yeah as soon as I saw the "answer" I was like "yeah sure blah blah blah, you can make a trick question, but what IS the country that you'll actually hit if you walk East from Seattle". I was guessing England, but the right answer is France.
- pdonis 2y ago
  > what IS the country that you'll actually hit if you walk East from Seattle". I was guessing England, but the right answer is France. Actually it's Canada, if "walk East" means "walk eastward along a line of constant latitude".

brokencode 2y ago

Idk, I think it’s pretty clear based on the description what they mean. For one, the problem description says the straight line is “along the Earth’s surface” so I don’t think you can reasonably think it might go into space. And to me it seems reasonable to say a straight line means not turning. I personally imagined getting in a plane and going straight forward, assuming there is no wind to blow me off course. That is just the common understanding of straight. If somebody asks you to walk in a straight line, do you ask them what coordinate system they’re using? No, you walk forward without turning. I guess “most obvious” can always be up to interpretation, though.

hervature 2y ago
I think if you were to ask someone not trained in navigation "to fly straight" between two points on the globe, they are probably not going to come up with the concept of great circles and most likely will end up turning a bunch during their flight "to fly straight". I could be wrong but I think "most obvious" if we are defining it as "the most natural thing most people would do without explicit training" then the article is wrong and this thread would agree with this conclusion. I don't disagree that it is possible to deduce the great circle if you think about it and have the knowledge to coordinate systems. But why even ask the question this way when you can get to the core of the question by explicitly asking "Along the great circle that reaches its max latitude at Seattle, what's the next country it touches going eastward from Seattle?" This would yield many more correct answers and why people think its mostly wordplay (because it is).
- brokencode 2y ago
  The problem just says to fly straight, not straight between two points. Though this thread is proof that a lot of people interpreted it differently, so all I can say is that I personally think it makes sense. Even so, my guess after a very brief thought about it was actually Canada, so this understanding didn’t help me any :) I had never heard of this concept of “great circles” before, so it personally wouldn’t have made it clearer to me without some research. Given my ignorance on this topic, I found the fact that Australia was the first country you’d hit to be really quite remarkable.
mbrameld 2y ago
> the straight line is “along the Earth’s surface” Well, you've already run into a problem, because any line that follows the Earth's surface can't possibly be straight.

rprenger 2y ago

Yeah as soon as I saw the "answer" I was like "yeah sure blah blah blah, you can make a trick question, but what IS the country that you'll actually hit if you walk East from Seattle". I was guessing England, but the right answer is France.

pdonis 2y ago
> what IS the country that you'll actually hit if you walk East from Seattle". I was guessing England, but the right answer is France. Actually it's Canada, if "walk East" means "walk eastward along a line of constant latitude".