Bill Clinton just returned from Pyongyang (capital of North Korea), bringing back the two jailed journalists to their families in Burbank, California. For this trip across the Pacific, he borrowed a 737 from his friend, a film producer. How many countries did he have to negotiate with for the air space if the pilot took the shortest flight route?
A hint could be found in this story.
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Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Pyongyang to LA
Posted by
Maria
at
10:13 PM
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Labels:
famous people,
hard,
travel
5 comments:
3
United states
Japan
North Korea
Check it with a piece of a thread on the globe.
I think there is another country involved....
3
United states
Russia
North Korea
That's right!
The shortest route on a globe (earth) could be obtained by stretching a piece of thread and holding it with one hand at the point of departure and another hand at the destination, so that thread is "hugging" the globe tightly. Surprisingly, the way from LA to Pyongyang, goes above Russia and does not seem to touch Japan.
Alan emailed me that this also could be done using Google Earth and sent this image. You need to copy and paste the line below in a new window:
http://www.TheMathMom/images/Pyonyang_to_LA.jpg
And here is another view:
http://www.TheMathMom/images/Pyonyang_to_LA_2.jpg
Let's try again with the shorter names:
http://www.TheMathMom.com/images/Clinton.jpg
and
http://www.TheMathMom.com/images/Clinton2.jpg
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