why is it closer for planes to fly over the north pole when they fly from US to Europe?

Answer 1

Curvature of the earth.

But I don't think they go as far north as the North Pole.

Answer 2

Airlines fly as close as possible to a great circle route to reduce fuel costs to a minimum. If that path takes them over the N pole, then thats the way they go. Without a globe handy, its hard to visualize the shortest distance between various points in the USA and Europe or Asia. The air temperature at typical flight altitudes is about -50 anyway, so the colder ground temps dont make much difference. Since most of the destinations in the world are north of the equator, there are very few great circle air routes over the south pole or even anywhere over Antarctica..........

Answer 3

If you get out a globe and look down on the North Pole, you'll see that the shortest distance from Anchorage to London is over the Pole. Going through Canada and across the Atlantic is like getting from one end of a circle's diameter to the other by going round the circumference instead of in a straight line; it's about 1 1/2 times as far.

Answer 4

Most of the responders are correct. The easiest way to understand it is indeed to play with a globe and a piece of string. A great circle route will go over the pole if the endpoints are 180 degrees apart. A flight from Hawaii (153 degrees west) to Bucharest (about 27 degrees east) would be shortest if flown over the North Pole.

Answer 5

Like the first answer said, it's the curvature of the Earth. But, speaking from experience, they don't fly over the North Pole. They do take a route that seems a bit out-of-the-way if you plot it on a two-dimensional map, but not all the way to the North Pole.

Answer 6

These routes are called 'Great Circle routes'

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

As the fellow said above, place a string on a globe between to places, stretch the string tight. If you trace that route it will be part ( or a section ) of a circle. Also the shortest route. Also a straight line around the globe.
When a map of the world is made flat
( Called a projection, one type is called a Mercator Projection, Mercator is the guy who invented the method) the straight lines appear curved. Only because the flat map is representing a sphere ( The Planet)

Hey, I didn't make it this way. It was like this when I got here.

Yours: Grumpy

Answer 7

First, they do not fly all the way over the North pole. Second - I know what you mean - it looks like they make an arch in their itinerary. But it only looks that way of a flat map. If your draw their itinerary on a globe (which actually represents the Earth better), you would see that it is the shortest way.

Answer 8

In addition to what everyone else said, you also have to take into account that, unlike your globe, the Earth is not a perfect sphere. It bulges out at the equator, and it is somewhat flattened at the poles. Flying around the equator should take longer since the Earth is wider at this point than a perfect sphere would be.

Answer 9

Take a piece of string to a globe. Hold one end on Europe, and the other on the U.S. See where the shortest route would take you.

Answer 10

Depends on where exactly you are flying from. Probably has to do with the amount of fuel they have, and when they have to refuel