plover's Journal: Game time!

Thanks to this posting, Rupert and I are now playing a game: Find the highest Google maps route distance to great circle distance ratio.

Rupert started it with this:

Fairbanks to St. Petersburg.
Great circle distance: 3,840 miles
Google directions distance: 9,631 miles
My score: 2.508

I answered by stretching his route slightly: Kantishna Station, Alaska to Skarsvag, Norway. It's a pretty long journey no matter how you look at it.

Google's route: 10,411 miles
Great circle distance: 3,141 miles
It has a score of only 3.315, but it'll take 34 days to make the journey!

This one seemed like a good North American entry:
Google's route
gets a score of 3.7.

But North America is tricky. Just about every goat and Jeep trail is mapped, and we Americans cannot abide straight lines that aren't paved. Rupert's still managed to find some good ones: Route to distance gives a very respectable 5.6.

I've headed over to the Balkans, where the maps are usefully short on detail. Here's my latest entry. Lecce, Italy to Tirane, Albania: Route to great circle.

1267 km by Google, 216 km straight arc. Score is 5.866.

It's kind of a pain because you have to snarf the lat/lon from Google's URL and adapt it to the great circle calculator, but it's fun to exploit holes in Google's map coverage.

Some trivially long routes

[davidwr]

Look for destinations that are just across a small river from each other but where the nearest bridge is miles away. If they are 100 feet apart and the nearest bridge is 1 mile away, that's a ratio of 100 right there.

Also look for addresses near international borders, where the nearest legal border crossing is a few miles away.

Score 16.65

[Rupert]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=newma n +rd+%26+hwy+26,+reno,+mn&daddr=WI-35+%26+Main+St,+ Genoa,+Vernon,+Wisconsin+54632,+United+States&sll= 43.581316,-91.226977&sspn=0.005728,0.010042&layer= &ie=UTF8&z=11&om=1 [google.com]
33.3 miles

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=43.579983N+91.2 78856W-43.581316n+91.226977w [kls2.com]
2 miles

Re:Score 20.1

[Rupert]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=cr-14 5 ,+lamotte,+mo&daddr=drift+chute+rd,+illinois,+Unit ed+States&layer=&sll=39.551707,-91.140175&sspn=0.1 95098,0.32135&ie=UTF8&z=12&ll=39.545353,-91.08799& spn=0.195115,0.32135&om=1 [google.com]
40.2 mi
http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=39.547471n+91.1 68456w-39.556438n+91.127687w [kls2.com]
2nm

Re:Score 73.137

[Rupert]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=hambu r g,+il&daddr=MO-P+%26+County+Road+202+%26+CR-200,+A nnada,+Pike,+Missouri+63330,+United+States&layer=& ie=UTF8&sll=39.230126,-90.723209&sspn=0.049,0.0803 38&z=15&ll=39.230525,-90.719862&spn=0.0245,0.04016 9&om=1 [google.com]
40.2 miles (again)
http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=39.230658n+90.7 27715w-39.230022n+90.717625w [kls2.com]
0.55 miles (from trig)

Score 114

[plover]

http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=Placemark+2+%40 4 6.279876970487166,-100.56790351867676&saddr=Placem ark+1+%4046.27720747382109,-100.5879020690918&f=d& hl=en&sll=46.281301,-100.567989&sspn=0.021503,0.04 0083&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&msid=11284848066938134515 4.00000111e958771175336&msa=0&z=10&ll=46.550361,-1 00.692444&spn=0.68471,1.282654 [google.com]
114 miles

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=46.277207473821 09n100.587902069091w-46.279876970487166n100.567903 51867676w [kls2.com]
1 mi

Score 77

[plover]

http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=null+%4047.9255 7 3980800316,-118.34545612335205&saddr=Placemark+3+% 4047.921892906011834,-118.36017608642578&f=d&hl=en &sll=47.926652,-118.35155&sspn=0.010424,0.020041&l ayer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&msid=112848480669381345154.0000 0111e9666bc916ea9&msa=0&z=15&ll=47.924798,-118.350 649&spn=0.020849,0.040083 [google.com]
77 miles

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=47.925573980800 316n118.34545612335205w-47.921892906011834n118.360 17608642578w [kls2.com]
1 mile

Y

Re:

[Rupert]

That's cheating. I was only using named places.

Re:

[plover]

What, so 6701 Bass Lake Rd is now a "named place"? I would have gladly typed in street numbers if I actually knew them.

So are we saying the rule is "feature based" only? No lat/lon, no addresses. How about adding "no street names or ZIP codes" -- can't just type in "153rd st" or "9th st at 1st ave" or "55420", it's got to be an actual named place, like "Fargo, ND", "Kenora Airport" or "Grant's tomb"?

Score 4658

[plover]

Good idea on searching the borders. This one isn't bad:
http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=48.9991269870509 1,-99.7010350227356&saddr=49.000056109639594,-99.7 05069065094&f=d&hl=en&sll=49.000464,-99.705069&ssp n=0.009516,0.019956&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&msid=11284 8480669381345154.00000111eca4a390877de&msa=0&z=17& ll=48.999465,-99.702601&spn=0.004758,0.009978 [google.com]
8.8 mile route
Computing that with http://www.waypoint.org/gps1-calc.html [waypoint.org] (setting it to WGS84, none of t