✈️🌍 Why Do Flight Paths Look Curved? When flying from *Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles*, you might expect a straight path across the Atlantic or Mediterranean. In reality, the flight takes a curved route over Iran, Russia, the North Pole, and Canada before reaching the US west coast. The reason? The Earth is *spherical*, and the shortest distance between two points on a sphere is called a *Great Circle Route*—a curved line on flat maps, but actually the most direct path. 🗺️ Flat maps are misleading Projections like the *Mercator map* distort distances and shapes. A route that appears curved is actually shorter, while a "straight" line on the map may be longer. 💡 Why do planes take this route? - Shorter distance - Less flight time - Lower fuel consumption - Reduced operating costs - Sometimes to catch favorable jet streams 📜 Ancient knowledge Muslim scholars like *Al-Biruni* and *Al-Idrisi* understood Earth's shape and calculated such paths centuries ago for navigation and determining directions. 🌐 So, what looks strange on a flat map is actually the most *efficient and direct path* on our spherical Earth. #GreatCircleRoute #FlightPaths #AirTravelFacts #GeographyMatters #AviationScience #TravelSmart #CurvedNotCrooked #Map