It is about 2244.5 nautical miles from Los Angeles, CA to Honolulu, HI. A boat starts from being at rest in Los Angeles Harbor and proceeds at 1 knot per hour to Honolulu. How long does it take?

There is the possibility that if you shoot straight for Honolulu you will miss it. You need to point your boat sout of Honolulu, because of the coriolis force. This makes your trip not part of a geodesic; the distance you actually travel is larger than 2244.5 miles.

Alternatively, you can stay on the geodesic by using some of your acceleration to cancel out the coriolis force, keeping your propeller at a small angle with respect to your travel direction.

Either way, it's gonna take you more than 67 hours to crash your boat into Honolulu.

Posted by ajosin on 2005-06-20 03:24:22