Curious: Car vs Plane - Who Gets There First?

[Hinozuki]

Okay. Don't worry about 'where' or things in the way, and anything of the sort.

A car and a plane both going 100mph and the plane being 10miles up in the air. Which one gets the the selected latitude ( or longitude I forget which is up and down) first?

Wouldn't the car get there first? Because on a sphere the car being closer the the Earth would have a shorter distance to travel than the plane.

Just curious.

 

[lzkelley]

Exactly

 

[dst]

Yes but I imagine the effect would be essentially minute.

 

[Danger]

If you're going by ground speed, the car will arrive first for the very reason that you mentioned... shorter arc. If the aeroplane is measuring airspeed, then it's up to the wind to decide.

 

[LURCH]

Actually, would that be true? If you go by ground speed, they are botyh covering the same amount of ground, aren't they?

 

[Danger]

Oops...