Fact of the Week

Did you ever wonder why flights from Europe to the US fly north before flying to the destination? Why not just fly a straight line?

I know I wondered, and here's why.

It's shorter. We're taught that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. However, this is only true on a flat surface. The curvature of the Earth increases as you get closer to the North Pole, which makes flying north first, a shorter journey than flying straight.