An idea proposed by a Reddit user about a sail journey between Pakistan to Russia almost five years back has actually turned out to be right. Scientists have found out that the route suggested was correct and it is the longest possible straight line boat journey, on the Earth. The ship once set from Pakistan will not hit any land for about 32,090 kilometres until it reaches the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.

Patrick Anderson, a law attorney from Georgia had posted a thread on Reddit of a map using the coordinates he found on Wikipedia in an entry titled “Extreme points of Earth." He then followed it up with a video to show the line between these coordinates was straight. “You may be a bit disappointed, as I did not discover the path, but merely thought it was cool enough to put on a map,” he says. The video caught the attention of Rohan Chabukswar, a physicist at United Technologies Research Center Ireland. He along with his colleague Kushal Mukherjee from IBM Research India set out to find if the route charted on the map was correct. Turns out, it was and it was actually really cool.

Take a look at the video posted by Patrick Anderson connecting the two lands in a straight line:

The two scientists did the math. They started with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) ETOPO1 Global Relief model of Earth's surface. This shows our planet at a spatial resolution of about 1.8 kms. They collected the necessary data of the altitude and found out the geometry. They then figured out the longest possible straight lines that can be drawn on the spherical earth's surface. They analyzed all the possible routes along with the points on the maps. They optimised it using an algorithm that tests all such great circles. Once the results were out, they proved that what Anderson stated years ago was entirely right.

This route starts at Sonmiani, Pakistan, and go downwards through the gap between Madagascar and Africa. It then proceeds from the small gap between South America and Antarctica. From there it proceeds north-northwest right across the massive Pacific and head to landing on the frigid beaches of the Karaginsky District in Russia. This will be close to 33,000 kms. The line may appear curved but it is not if you out it out on a globe. Something stated on the internet has been researched and proven true by scientists.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 02, 2018 09:17 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).