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Living in The Netherlands it's easy to forget that these countries are not actually separated from Europe in any way. The distance between Amsterdam and Pakista

by tinco 13y ago

Living in The Netherlands it's easy to forget that these countries are not actually separated from Europe in any way. The distance between Amsterdam and Pakistan is comparable (a bit longer) to the distance between L.A. and New York. A cool story that was recently in the Dutch news reduces that perceived distance, when an independent car rental business owner pursues and retrieves one of his cars all the way in Iraq: http://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnos.nl%2Fartikel%2F595258-man-naar-irak-om-gestolen-autos.html http://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_... The thieves just rented a car, and drove there. Possibly to fight Jihad.

khuey 13y ago
Pakistan is much farther away than you think it is. http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=AMS-KHI,+JFK-LAX http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=AMS-KHI,+JFK-LAX
- tinco 13y ago
  Hmm that's weird, I measured by going to google maps, spreading my fingers between Amsterdam and Pakistan. I then scrolled to the U.S. while holding my fingers in that position, and the distance difference was like ~20%, according to your flightplan it's almost twice as far though. Not sure what went wrong there :) edit: using http://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between.htm http://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between.htm I find 5600km for Amsterdam -> Islamabad, and 3900km from LA -> NY. So I was 40% off :P
  - kej 13y ago
    >Not sure what went wrong there :) Google Maps uses a modified Mercator projection, which distorts distances.
  - dalore 13y ago
    You are measure a 3d projection on a 2d plane. There has to be distortion somewhere. Most likely they use the mercator projection which has places further from the equator appear bigger than the ones near the equator.
  - Sharlin 13y ago
    The old Google Maps had/has a real distance measurement tool. Shame that the new doesn't, at least not yet.

by tinco 13y ago

khuey 13y ago

Pakistan is much farther away than you think it is. http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=AMS-KHI,+JFK-LAX http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=AMS-KHI,+JFK-LAX

tinco 13y ago
Hmm that's weird, I measured by going to google maps, spreading my fingers between Amsterdam and Pakistan. I then scrolled to the U.S. while holding my fingers in that position, and the distance difference was like ~20%, according to your flightplan it's almost twice as far though. Not sure what went wrong there :) edit: using http://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between.htm http://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between.htm I find 5600km for Amsterdam -> Islamabad, and 3900km from LA -> NY. So I was 40% off :P
- kej 13y ago
  >Not sure what went wrong there :) Google Maps uses a modified Mercator projection, which distorts distances.
- dalore 13y ago
  You are measure a 3d projection on a 2d plane. There has to be distortion somewhere. Most likely they use the mercator projection which has places further from the equator appear bigger than the ones near the equator.
- Sharlin 13y ago
  The old Google Maps had/has a real distance measurement tool. Shame that the new doesn't, at least not yet.