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What two points on Earth are the farthest apart that you can walk between? (self.askscience)

submitted ago* by LesterRoyale

By longest, I mean distance, not displacement. Assume that you'd be able to walk in a straight line for as long as possible.

The four contenders, as far as I see it, are East Russia to South Africa, Singapore to Portugal, Singapore to South Africa, or Alaska to the bottom of Chile. Which one wins out?

And on an unrelated note, what's with the flair? Are we going to have rankings now?

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[–]TheBBMathematics|Numerical Methods for PDEs 21 points22 points ago

I played around a bit in Google Earth, and it's surprisingly close. I think Kamchatka - South Africa is longest, but not by more than maybe 500 km. Allow for some inaccuracy in the numbers!

  1. Tip of Kamchatka, Russia - Cape of Good Hope, South Africa: 17674 km.
  2. Bering Strait, Russia - Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, 16972 km.
  3. Cape Sarichet, Alaska - Cape Horn, Chile: 16893 km.
  4. Singapore - Cape of Good Hope, South Africa: 15973 km.
  5. Tip of Kamchatka, Russia - Sagres, Portugal: 11590 km.

[–]loveyou5ever 9 points10 points ago

If it were winter in the northern hemisphere couldn't you walk across the arctic and be able to go from South Africa to Chile?

[–]musubk 6 points7 points ago

What the fuck. I thought this was impossible because the Bering Strait doesn't freeze solid, but it's been done. Twice. You have to get lucky with currents and ice, and hop from block to block. I know what I want to do.

[–]Youreahugeidiot 1 point2 points ago

I think that's the current theory on how the Native American's originally came to the Americas.

[–]VorticityAtmospheric Science|Remote Sensing|Cloud Microphysics 3 points4 points ago

This actually has a lot more to do with a land bridge that went from present day Russia to present day Alaska.

[–]LesterRoyale[S] 2 points3 points ago

Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for. Kinda surprising that they're all so close together...

[–]TheBBMathematics|Numerical Methods for PDEs 13 points14 points ago

I took the liberty of making an elevation profile.

[–]drunkenbozo 0 points1 point ago

How did you do that?

[–]name_dropper 4 points5 points ago

Google earth! You can draw a path and then click "see elevation profile"

[–]glittalogik 2 points3 points ago

I was going to object to the Eurasia/Africa trips due to the Suez Canal, but apparently you can walk across it after all. Learn something new every day!

[–]avfc41Political Science|Voting Behavior|Redistricting 5 points6 points ago

For a straight line, this came up a week or so ago in /r/mapporn. This guy claims Liberia to China ("without crossing any ocean or any major water bodies").

[–]Ooboga 1 point2 points ago

Wouldn't this depend on the type of map? This example almost takes you from Kamchatka and half-ways down in Africa.

[–]avfc41Political Science|Voting Behavior|Redistricting 1 point2 points ago

It does. On a curved surface, "straight lines" are a bit weird - geodesics are the more useful concept. Like a straight line on a 2-d plane, they're the shortest distance between two points. In a given map projection, there are certain places where a straight line and a geodesic are the same, like the line on the map I linked. I would venture to guess the Kamchatka-Africa line on yours is not.

[–]existentialheroCombinatorics | Graph Enumeration | Quotient Structures 1 point2 points ago

Notably, geodesic paths are also the ones that look straight locally—that is, the ones you get when you actually just start walking in a direction. Following a "straight" line from a projected map would require constantly turning.

[–]WilyDoppelganger 3 points4 points ago

The Arctic Ocean freezes over in winter, so you can walk to the Old World from the New - then it's a topology question, which I'd rather not solve.

[–]PrimusPilus 0 points1 point ago

Um, how could you walk from Singapore to Portugal (or to South Africa) in a straight line?

[–]LesterRoyale[S] 0 points1 point ago

You wouldn't be able to. There are seas and stuff in the way (as you know), so you'd have to figure out the quickest route. This is accomplished by drawing straight lines as far as possible, going around the obstacles.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]AnteChronos 0 points1 point ago*

A map would possibly not work, thanks to distortion from the projection used, though some projections might be better than others. Regardless, I'd recommend a globe and some string. Maybe a few thumbtacks for routing around coastlines and large bodies of water, if you're not worried about putting holes in your globe.

Edit: OP, if by "straight line" you mean "great circle", it looks like the largest distance is between the coast near Greenville, Liberia, and a location south of Ningbo, China.

[–]LesterRoyale[S] 0 points1 point ago

I meant straight line as in, disregard any trivial obstacles like dense forests or cities or what not. The only major obstacles would be bodies of water, and possible some mountain ranges.

[–]Broan13 0 points1 point ago

You would be surprised how even a non-dense forest is difficult to pass through without a knife or something. Underbrush can be viciously prickly.

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