Response to Rudy on eastward flights
Response to Rudy on eastward flights
I write this letter in response to Rudy Hendra of Bandung, who seems confused as to why commercial carriers fly eastward to the U.S. from Southeast Asia (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 27, Why fly eastward to reach the U.S.?). He wondered, specifically, if the Earth's rotation would hinder eastward flights.
The short and sweet answer is that the Earth's rotation of 5,000 meters per second includes the atmosphere, in which planes fly, and thus does not affect commercial air travel (at just 35,000 feet usually) in any way whatsoever.
As the plane is still in the atmosphere, thus still in the "frame", all of which moves together, the rotation does not affect the plane.
As far as flying first to Japan, that is simply because the earth a is big sphere (actually more of an ellipsoid) and the shortest distance between two points on either side of that ellipsoid often is in a great curved route. Take a desk globe and string and try it out. Another experiment that is loads of fun is to take a ball, and while traveling at high speed down the toll road in an enclosed Kijang, toss it up in the air say 30 centimeters. It will go straight up and straight down, because you and the ball are moving with the car. It's fun for the whole family. I do it all the time.
Another good one is to stand on the ground outside and jump up as high as you can. Let's say you manage to stay off the surface of the earth for a half second. If we weren't part of the atmosphere of the earth, as a plane still is even at 35,000 feet, then the ground beneath you would have moved 2,500 meters. (5000m/sec / 2).
And lastly, the distance between Jakarta and Minneapolis, which is 13 hours time difference from Jakarta, is about 9,300 miles when traveling eastward, but is over 11,000 miles when traveling westward.
Another factor that was not queried is that there are strong winds up at 35,000 feet -- up to 100 mph -- but that may be a discussion for another day.
TRAVIS BREKLE, Jakarta