rattlesnake

Your patience is much appreciated, Richard, as is your willingness to occasionally stoop to these abyssal depths of mundanity. Regarding refraction, my uneducated mind doesn't understand how it works with the picture posted above. The refraction phenomenon only works with objects which are already in line of sight, as explained here: https://www.britannica.com/topic/mirage-optical-illusion The phenomenon called "Fata Morgana", for example, causes a superior mirage to be visible in a narrow band above the horizon, caused by a misinterpretation of what really is a "false horizon": the surface of the water takes on the color of the sky because of lighting, the position of clouds and the stillness of the water surface. But the sine qua non is that the object has to be visible to begin with. In the above picture of Chicago, the buildings are 50 miles away. According to the well-established formula recalled by Mike, over a distance of 10 miles (16.1 km), the drop is about 66.7 feet (20.3 m). So over a distance of 50 miles, that’s a drop of over 100 m, the smaller buildings should not be visible at all. Refraction does not cause hidden objects to appear.

Indeed. A Google search yields convoluted explanations about this being a mirage of some sort… Or to put it simply, "don't trust your own eyes".

I preferred yesterday's Mike, the one who would readily provide detailed explanations and formulas without being prompted to.

Got it, thanks for clarifying that.

Thanks for the clarificaions.

I don't do math, please explain.

So how does one explain this?

Good question. Why indeed?

So regarding the flight paths, I found this website which provides all available routes between two airports: https://www.flightconnections.com/ I did find some peculiar things, confirmed when checked on flightconnections.com: Why does Buenos Aires - New Delhi not stop over in Africa? Rio Gallegos - Johannesburg: why the detour via Sao Paulo? There are also several flights which make seemingly massive detours through Europe (in fact most of them, even if the odd direct flight exists). Example here with Buenos AIres - Johannesburg:

That's why I would personally go down that avenue, even if harder in the beginning. Thai weather is Thai weather, it can't be that different from one province to another. How does one launch a successful business? Be sure people will buy the product and be sure nobody else is doing it in the vicinity.

Durian always sells well and is more profitable, the Thais can't resist it. That's what I would go for.

Children in adults' bodies. Best not tell them about the origins of Volkswagen…

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/trump-tariffs-live-updates-trump-threatens-200-tariff-on-european-wine-champagne-191201568.html Psst, Trump, the US doesn't have a champagne business, since champagne is produced in France only. At best the US has some mediocre sparkling wine. Seek help, the syndrome doesn't go away by itself.

A possibly valid remark. If this were the only example given, I would agree on its limited relevance. I believe, however, that when there is a body of circumstancial evidence, then it warrants closer observation. There are plenty of examples, I will look into them a bit later.

A very astute remark indeed.

Research it and you will see the overwhelming majority of airlines do not offer direct flights, South African Airlines being pretty much the only exception.

Thanks Mike. @BillyBid, any additional insights?

It is fairly self-explanatory.

Indeed, my dear Stiddle. Let's take a look at a couple of examples, shall we? Two flight paths, represented on a globe Earth and a flat one. Which ones make sense? Johannesberg - Perth (globe path on the top, flat path on the bottom): Sydney - Santiago (globe path on the left, flat path on the right):

Actually, Stiddle Mump, could you be so kind as to confirm or disprove that the Earth's purported curvature is measured according to the formula "eight inches per mile squared"? Any other information and/or computation method in this respect is also welcome.

Your only valid avenue is to finish your demonstration.

You have already started the explaining, now for the sake of your own relevance, please conclude. P.S. I thought the Earth was "an oblate spheroid"?

Please enlighten me and explain how one expresses the Earth's curvature in numbers.

I certainly won't refute that statement. However, do the airline pilots shown in that video I posted seem crazy? Is this a sufficient explanation? I am sure that to many people, it will, if only for convenience purposes. A few of these pilots actually confess to never having actually thought about it, are not even aware of the “eight inches per mile squared” principle or what this should entail in terms of compensating/dipping the plane, and find themselves pretty surprised and unable to respond. It's a very interesting vdeo to watch. (And before anyone tells me "it's just 19 pilots out of XXX in the world", again, I have many more such testimonies.