From London to New York, more than the other way around

2008/08/25 Arakistain Aizpiri, Lorea - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Klima

Planes take longer to travel from Europe to the United States than from there to Europe.

Planes take longer to travel from Europe to the United States than from there to Europe. That is, traveling west and at the same distance takes more time than traveling east.
The longer airplanes take on some trips is due, above all, to jet currents. Jet current is a narrow, almost horizontal, high speed air current that passes near the tropopause. It is located about eleven kilometers from the Earth, between 5 and 7 thick and between 100 and 200 wide. It is thousands of kilometers long and reaches a high speed to reach 400 kilometers per hour.

Aircraft, depending on jet currents, choose one or another airway. (GSHHS)

Avoid jet stream

Jet currents are strong drafts. Therefore, when planes catch the currents around them, that is, they are in the same direction as themselves, the currents enter the air stream and travel with it. On the contrary, if they find them in the opposite direction, they avoid them and take another airway, which forces them to make a longer route, although it is somewhat smaller than going against the jet stream.

Therefore,
flight time is conditioned by two reasons: jet current and airway. They are not independent, since the second is a consequence of the first. In fact, if the plane that travels from London to New York takes the shortest way, you will encounter a jet stream. Flying against the wind, the plane will spend more fuel.

When they capture the currents of the part, they enter and travel with the air current

Centennial of Flight

The plane will not move. It will modify the air passage, approach the North Pole and travel a path longer than the logical one. The return will be different. He leaves New York and takes the jet stream to harness his strength, as surfers do.

Also, keep in mind that the speed of the plane is not measured with the earth, but with the air around it, but that the movement is with the earth. Therefore, to measure the speed of the plane with respect to the earth, to the speed that the plane carries with respect to the air must add that which carries that air with respect to the earth.

In this case, by catching the plane in its favor the jet stream, taking into account that its speed with respect to the surrounding air is equal to that of any trip and that the speed of the surrounding air with respect to the earth is high, the total speed that it reaches, that is, that which the plane carries on the earth will be greater. Therefore, you can travel from the shortest road at a speed higher than usual.

It would be logical that the Earth's rotation motion also had influence. It is true that flying to the same side that the Earth rotates helps, but it does not affect so much time. However, keep in mind that the rotation movement of the Earth is the same as that of the jet stream. Chance? No. The jet stream is originated by the movement of the Earth, so the winds that are generated, like the Earth, are of west-east direction.

In
short, the Earth's rotation movement originates jet currents in which planes choose one or another airway.

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