this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Would clarifying words have helped? "If you only sailed with forward force..." or "Following along the surface of the earth..." or... what?
Obviously they mean that you don't need to make any turns and that straight means an arc around the earth and not through the Earth, unless someone has a very different idea what sailing means...
Depends on what you mean by help. Yes, it would communicate the point better, but it's engagement bait, so the ambiguity is a feature rather than a bug.
Yes I think they mean it's a continuous line, not a "straight" line. As in the line is uninterrupted (continuous). It's also possible they mean the line qualifies as a nonlinear function since it also doesn't double back over itself (A function is a relationship where each input value (X) will create only one output value (Y)).
Math is hard. Describing lines like this is math - calculus actually due to the curve, and actually not just basic calculus but vector calculus because it involves an x,y, and z axis. Most laypeople will struggle to describe a line with the correct jargon.