{"id":28935,"date":"2025-06-20T17:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T17:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=28935"},"modified":"2025-06-20T17:27:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T17:27:23","slug":"because-fairbanks-and-st-petersburg-russia-see-problem-57-are-at-approximately-the-same-latitude-a-plane-could-fly-from-one-to-the-other-roughly-along-the-62-nd-parallel-of-latitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/because-fairbanks-and-st-petersburg-russia-see-problem-57-are-at-approximately-the-same-latitude-a-plane-could-fly-from-one-to-the-other-roughly-along-the-62-nd-parallel-of-latitude\/","title":{"rendered":"Because Fairbanks and St. Petersburg, Russia (see Problem 57 ) are at approximately the same latitude, a plane could fly from one to the other roughly along the 62 nd parallel of latitude"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Because Fairbanks and St. Petersburg, Russia (see Problem 57 ) are at approximately the same latitude, a plane could fly from one to the other roughly along the 62 nd parallel of latitude. Accurately estimate the length of such a trip both in kilometers and in miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is:<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Correct Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Estimated Distance<\/strong>: Approximately <strong>6,800 kilometers<\/strong> or <strong>4,225 miles<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Explanation (300 words):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fairbanks, Alaska and St. Petersburg, Russia are situated close to the <strong>62nd parallel north<\/strong>, a line of latitude. Although they are separated by the Arctic Ocean and parts of Siberia, their similar latitude makes it reasonable to approximate the flight distance along this parallel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To estimate the distance between two points on the same parallel of latitude, use the formula: Distance=(Difference&nbsp;in&nbsp;longitude&nbsp;in&nbsp;degrees)\u00d7(cos\u2061(latitude))\u00d7(length&nbsp;of&nbsp;one&nbsp;degree&nbsp;of&nbsp;longitude&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;equator)\\text{Distance} = (\\text{Difference in longitude in degrees}) \\times (\\cos(\\text{latitude})) \\times (\\text{length of one degree of longitude at the equator})<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the equator, each degree of longitude is about <strong>111.32 km<\/strong>. The formula includes a cosine function because the length of a degree of longitude decreases with latitude due to the spherical shape of Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Latitude<\/strong> = 62\u00b0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cos(62\u00b0)<\/strong> \u2248 0.4695<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Length of one degree of longitude at 62\u00b0<\/strong> = 111.32 \u00d7 0.4695 \u2248 52.25 km<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Now calculate the difference in longitude:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fairbanks, Alaska<\/strong> \u2248 <strong>147.7\u00b0W<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>St. Petersburg, Russia<\/strong> \u2248 <strong>30.3\u00b0E<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Total difference = 147.7 + 30.3 = <strong>178\u00b0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now multiply: Distance=178\u00d752.25\u22489,296&nbsp;km\\text{Distance} = 178 \\times 52.25 \\approx 9,296 \\text{ km}<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, due to the curvature of Earth and flight routing constraints, actual great-circle flight distance is shorter. The great-circle (shortest path over a sphere) distance between these two cities is about <strong>6,800 kilometers<\/strong>, which converts to <strong>4,225 miles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This distance is a more realistic estimate of the trip length, factoring in Earth\u2019s shape and standard aviation routing. Although the 9,296 km figure from a strict parallel-of-latitude method provides a mathematical estimate, real-world paths use the shortest spherical arc, known as the great-circle route, for more accurate and efficient travel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because Fairbanks and St. Petersburg, Russia (see Problem 57 ) are at approximately the same latitude, a plane could fly from one to the other roughly along the 62 nd parallel of latitude. Accurately estimate the length of such a trip both in kilometers and in miles. The correct answer and explanation is: Correct Answer: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28940,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28935\/revisions\/28940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}