Why Airplanes Fly On A Curved Path

Have you ever flown somewhere and see the inflight map showing the curved route your airplane was taking? You might wonder why would the plane took the seemingly longer pathway to reach the destination, instead of flying a straight line from the departing point to the destined airport you are going to land. So, what is the reason behind this?

Surprisingly, the reasons behind the phenomenon of curved path are relatively simple physics and mathematics. The earth is a 3-dimensional sphere, and because of the spherical shape, the circumference of the Earth is much greater around the equator than it is in higher or lower latitudes towards the poles. While we tend to recreate a flat map to represent the Earth, it doesn’t reflect on the real condition of the planet. That’s why when staring at a 2-dimensional map, the route taken by flights could be perplexing, as it doesn’t take into account the round shape of the Earth.

Credit - https://www.youtube.com/@Military-TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PRzUS6lEBM

Why Are Great Circles the Shortest Flight Path?
https://gisgeography.com/great-circle-geodesic-line-shortest-flight-path/