The distance from Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California is about 3888 km. The earth's circumference is about 40 000 km (source), so the US spans about 10% of that, roughly :)
this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
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You need to follow the curve of the Earth in order to make such a comparison. You've drawn a random squiggly line on a Mercator map projection and took the length of that and compared it to the circumference of a sphere. Those two things simply cannot be compared like that.
The fact is still correct, the continental US is around 10% of the circumference. But in the grand scheme of things this isn't really important or relevant for anything? It's just a fun fact really. For example the country of Chile also spans about 10% of the circumference. And so does Australia. Russia approaches 20%.
As the circumference of the planet isn't a measurement a regular person can relate to, or has any meaning for anyone, what does this comparison give us in terms of a new insight?
Projection doesn't matter, distance remains consistent even if it appears longer or shorter than it is in reality.
That distance does follow the curve of the Earth. It necessarily must. Driving from Jacksonville to LA does not tunnel 3 miles beneath the surface of it earth.
That's not what I meant. If the line isn't a straight as drawn on a sphere, the distance will be longer than it would be when drawn on that sphere. Especially a line like this that follows roads, a squiggly line, can end up much longer than a straight line would be.
When a straight line is drawn on a mercator projection map, and we then turn that projection back into a sphere, the line would no longer be straight. With the only exception being exactly in the north - south direction, since that is preserved with mercator.
My point wasn't that the line is shorter, like you suggest if the line were to tunnel below the surface. Exactly the opposite, the line would appear longer than it actually is, since it wouldn't be straight if we were to look at that line on a sphere.
Sure, and that's demonstrated pretty well elsewhere here in Australia.
But that's reasonably straight for what's being measured here and not the full breadth of the US. Going from the most extreme points in Maine to California, gives you a distance of 4600 km. Since we're effectively on a sphere, there's no particular reason that line needs to follow the latitudinal lines.
Jup that's why I mentioned Chili. My point was more that a line that follows a circumference on a sphere, depending on the angle, wouldn't look like a straight line on a mercator projection. But like I said, the basic fact is still right, it's just that squiggly line isn't the best indicator for that. If the line is a fractal it could be infinite length (thinking of coastlines), which isn't very helpful.
well yeah chile is long but significantly longer than broad. for the US, the length/width ratio is more like 2:1 so it's less extreme.
and also yeah, australia is big, but mostly all desert (i guess 90%) while the US is only 50% desert.
You do know that on spheres there's more circumference angles than just east to west, right? Any direction also has a circumference on the surface of the Earth.