First of all, your figures are all wrong. In a 3-4-5 triangle, if the 4-side is 3963 miles then the 3-side will be 2972.25 miles, the 5-side will be 4953.75 miles and the 1-extension will be 990.75 miles. But that's all irrelevant. A plane flying at constant altitude is not flying along the straight edge of a triangle. It is flying along a curved path that follows the curvature of the Earth. All motion is relative, so imagine instead that the plane is at rest in the air at an altitude of 8 miles above LA and the Earth is rotating beneath it around an axis so that New York passes under the plane. The plane will remain at the same altitude.
1 Comment
Brendan Ward
- a year ago
First of all, your figures are all wrong. In a 3-4-5 triangle, if the 4-side is 3963 miles then the 3-side will be 2972.25 miles, the 5-side will be 4953.75 miles and the 1-extension will be 990.75 miles. But that's all irrelevant. A plane flying at constant altitude is not flying along the straight edge of a triangle. It is flying along a curved path that follows the curvature of the Earth. All motion is relative, so imagine instead that the plane is at rest in the air at an altitude of 8 miles above LA and the Earth is rotating beneath it around an axis so that New York passes under the plane. The plane will remain at the same altitude.