Page 65 - The Miracle of Migration in Animals

HARUN YAHYA

Every spring, millions of shorebirds leave their wintering grounds in West
Africa and fly non-stop to Europe’s East Atlantic coast—their first stop. (B)
From there, they head for their breeding grounds in Siberia. (C) In the cour-
se of this flight, they follow the shortest route between two points on a
sphere, known as the orthodrome.

tually he will arrive at town C. In fact, these two different routes
correspond to concepts long known in seafaring. The shortest dis-
tance between two points on a sphere like Earth, as shown above,
is termed "orthodrome." The journey from one point to another
using a compass follows a different route, and this is termed "lox-
odrome." A loxodrome cuts each meridian with the same angle,

and the meridians join at the poles. That is, they are not straight
lines. A journey following a loxodrome is more oblique than the
"straight" road and therefore takes longer.
Pedro Nunes first drew a loxodrome in 1550 and believed it
was the shortest distance between two points on the Earth’s sur-
face. In other words, a loxodrome and an orthodrome were

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