<p>About curvature, you can see it. Just look at a ship some hundred meters away: you'll notice if you are careful that you can not see where the ship touches water.</p>

<p>You can see at <a href="http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/qq/database/QQ.09.97/dyck2.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/qq/database/QQ.09.97/dyck2.html</a> that the curvature is 8 inches per mile.</p>

<p>On the other hand, about rotation, planes do actually take advantage of earth rotation, but not directly. This was answered in <a href="https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/16390/does-the-rotation-of-the-earth-dramatically-affect-airplane-flight-time">https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/16390/does-the-rotation-of-the-earth-dramatically-affect-airplane-flight-time</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-18T08:22:50.160Z
2014-02-18T08:22:50.160Z
2017-04-13T12:40:15.377Z
Envite
<p>Earth's rotation doesn't help airplanes much: the air is almost stationary with respect to the earth and airplanes move relative to the air. Suppose a hot air balloon. Air is dragged along with the rotation of earth, so the balloon will almost be stationary. (Ok, it moves, but only slowly.) So whether the plane travels east or west for 1000 km, it has to travel 1000 km against air which is 900 km/h slower.  </p>

<p>There is a meteorological effect that planes can use, though. The <strong>jet stream</strong> is a channel of very high speed winds at high altitude.  </p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/mpwh5.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>

<p>Planes traveling east, for instance from the US west coast to the east coast, or from America to Europe, take advantage of this jet stream to save fuel. Note that the jet stream isn't anywhere as fast as the earth's rotation. At 50 degrees north the earth's rotation is about 1000 km/h, while the jet stream is about 200 km/h.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-18T13:14:47.047Z
2014-02-18T13:14:47.047Z
stevenvh
<p>I have a doubt in Earth's curvature. This question may be dumb.</p>

<p>How much we need to travel on the Earth to feel the curvature of Earth? Hypothetical case: for example, we are building a vehicle. How much is the length of that vehicle to feel the curvature of the Earth?</p>

<p>A more question, what is about the speed of the Earth. Again a hypothetical case. If we are travelling in aeroplane from one country to other, whether we can take Earth's rotational speed (rotating around it's own axis), and aeroplane speeds as comparables and find the resultant speed?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-16T15:44:49.903Z
Then it should be migrated, not moved.
Pere
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-16T16:01:39.333Z
@Pere it can't be migrated anymore since it's more than 60 days old.
Glorfindel
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-18T23:41:50.553Z
The question appears to be off-topic in the sense of the site, since it is only related to Earth, not to other celestial objects or phenomena.
Gerald
<earth>
Regarding the curvature of the Earth
user19579
# Regarding the curvature of the Earth

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-02-18)

I have a doubt in Earth's curvature. This question may be dumb.

How much we need to travel on the Earth to feel the curvature of Earth? Hypothetical case: for example, we are building a vehicle. How much is the length of that vehicle to feel the curvature of the Earth?

A more question, what is about the speed of the Earth. Again a hypothetical case. If we are travelling in aeroplane from one country to other, whether we can take Earth's rotational speed (rotating around it's own axis), and aeroplane speeds as comparables and find the resultant speed?

**Tags:** earth

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: The question appears to be off-topic in the sense of the site, since it is only related to Earth, not to other celestial objects or phenomena.  
> **username_1**: Then it should be migrated, not moved.  
> **username_2**: @username_1 it can't be migrated anymore since it's more than 60 days old.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2014-02-18. Score: 6

About curvature, you can see it. Just look at a ship some hundred meters away: you'll notice if you are careful that you can not see where the ship touches water.

You can see at <http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/qq/database/QQ.09.97/dyck2.html> that the curvature is 8 inches per mile.

On the other hand, about rotation, planes do actually take advantage of earth rotation, but not directly. This was answered in <https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/16390/does-the-rotation-of-the-earth-dramatically-affect-airplane-flight-time>


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### Answer by username_5 on 2014-02-18. Score: 2

Earth's rotation doesn't help airplanes much: the air is almost stationary with respect to the earth and airplanes move relative to the air. Suppose a hot air balloon. Air is dragged along with the rotation of earth, so the balloon will almost be stationary. (Ok, it moves, but only slowly.) So whether the plane travels east or west for 1000 km, it has to travel 1000 km against air which is 900 km/h slower.

There is a meteorological effect that planes can use, though. The **jet stream** is a channel of very high speed winds at high altitude.

![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/mpwh5.png)

Planes traveling east, for instance from the US west coast to the east coast, or from America to Europe, take advantage of this jet stream to save fuel. Note that the jet stream isn't anywhere as fast as the earth's rotation. At 50 degrees north the earth's rotation is about 1000 km/h, while the jet stream is about 200 km/h.


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