tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14427379.post114577508769565591..comments2023-05-30T15:20:21.068+02:00Comments on The Core Dump of Thought: Airplane travelingzvrbahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08806965334872601252noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14427379.post-1147443968985583502006-05-12T16:26:00.000+02:002006-05-12T16:26:00.000+02:00The effect of Earth's rotation is that it can shor...The effect of Earth's rotation is that it can shorten physical distance if you're flying in the direction opposite of earth's rotation.zvrbahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08806965334872601252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14427379.post-1147396598757926252006-05-12T03:16:00.000+02:002006-05-12T03:16:00.000+02:00There was a plane crash (of the sort where the pla...There was a plane crash (of the sort where the plane slid off the end of the runway into a ravine and caught on fire) about a year ago somewhere in the northeastern U.S., where apparently they did manage to evacuate the airplane in something like one or two minutes, and thereby saved the lives of the passengers since the plane was completely burned within a few minutes after the crash. So it can be done.<BR/><BR/>(I suspect that having more than one door open, plus the added encouragement of having the plane be on fire, probably helps, though! As does having the flight attendants actively directing things.)<BR/><BR/>As to the question of the Earth's rotation: I'm not sure how that would affect things directly, but it affects things indirectly because it's responsible for the prevailing higher-atmosphere winds. And those are definitely taken into account -- the east-west cross country flights in the U.S. tend to be scheduled about 20 minutes longer (on a 5-hour flight) for flights going west compared to flights going east, because of the winds.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com