Suppose you can survive in space, and you can fly. And suppose that you’re deposited forty or fifty thousand miles up, at a random spot in Earth orbit.
Knowing what you know right now, could you find your way home?
If so, how directly could you find it? Could you fly more or less straight there, or would you have to find some other place first? (For example, would you have to fly to a major, easily-identifiable city, perhaps a long way from your home, and then follow roads, or other landmarks, to get to your place? Or would you have to ask for directions?)
Obviously this is a lot easier if you live on the coast. But surely, 'Dopers are prepared for any emergency, so …
Interesting question. Since I live right on the Gulf Coast, I think I’d be able to find a place fairly close to where I live…as long as I landed somewhere on Mississippi’s coast, I think I could find my way home. Once I reach an altitude where the shapes of the coastline disappear, though, it could get tricky.
Barring all else, I could just aim for the huge swamp that is New Orleans and hitch home.
I’d guess I could get within a few miles if I had complete control over myself. But, how would I stop?! I might have to do that thing I did ~1000 times when I roller-skated and stop by ramming into people and hopping benches!
I should have added my own reply. Wellington is right at the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand … hard to miss, so I’d have a fairly easy time of it.
Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever lived in a place where I couldn’t have found my way home quickly. Of course, in New Zealand, the coast-to-inland ratio is fairly high…
My house could be located fairly easily. I’d just zoom in on North America, then locate the Snake River, the shape of its course which I can easily recognize on an unmarked map. Once I was at that point I’d interpolate between where the Boise River dumps into the Snake River, and Lucky Peak Reservoir several miles upstream. From this point I could zoom down and find my way from there.
Yup… trace a line north from Selsey Bill in Sussex, and a line west from North Foreland in Kent (both prominent headlands) and I’m right where the two lines meet. That’s the method my mum taught me to pinpoint our house on the weather map, so it’s good enough for me…
I think it would take me a couple of tries - I’m inland, and while there’s a river nearby, the height would make it so that I wouldn’t be sure that I was even near the right town.
I just went to http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ to see if that site has the map that you can click on without the state outlines. Now, I got the North America part - and I would have gotten that even if it hadn’t been colored green on the map. Unfortunately, it then gave me a map of the US with the states outlined on it. But I went with it anyway, to see how close I’d get that way. My click was too far west - I was further toward Middle Tennessee than I meant to be - even when I clicked as far East as I could on that one, I was still near Clinton, TN. Now, that’s relatively close, but not quite here.
I’d really like to find a clickable map that doesn’t have the state outlines on it, to see how close I’d come without that, but I haven’t yet.
Excellent test. I have to take my answer back, the downtown airport is a much better landmark than the river, using that to get to I-385 I was able to navigate my way home.
Lsura, very neat site. This picture here shows me exactly where my house sits. Problem is I don’t recognize it on screen let alone space. But that picture was taken in '82. Time sure does bring on change.
I might have to do that thing I did ~1000 times when I roller-skated and stop by ramming into people and hopping benches!
