The paper is basically like this (spoiler alert):

“Some random user on Reddit posted a picture claiming that this is the longest straight line path on water possible on the Earth. We implemented a smart algorithm to solve this problem, found the elevation data, ran our algorithm... yes, that random user was right. Also, here's the longest path on land.”

Thanks, I really enjoyed reading it, even though I hoped that they would disprove the original claim!

Edit: here are the gcmap links to the two paths: sea [1], land [2].

[1]: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=25%B017%27N+66%B040%27E-58%B037...

[2]: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=24%B033%27N+118%B038%27E-37%B02...

There's a longer land path that starts in or near Senegal and ends in China. But they miss it because it goes near the Dead Sea, and they treat anything below sea level as water.

But what would flat-earthers consider the longest possible paths to be? Not the ones shown in the article?

> Figure 9: Longest Drivable Straight Line Path on Earth.

Walkable, maybe, but definitely not drivable (it crosses directly over the Alps, for example).

I made a "first person" perspective rendering of this: https://mrgris.com/img/landfall/longest.png

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If it is undrivable in a straight line, why does that count? I’d assume the longest you could drive in a perfectly straight line would either be the longest straight highway or some drivable desert.

Nerd sniping at its best... ;)

it would be interesting if it was a list of actual journeys with the sub lists of deviations required. a special club for the brutaly determined and persistant the "strait liners" things like having to beg, bluff, bribe, your way through someones house

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