this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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Doing some quick math here:
Circumference of the Earth is about 24k mi = 44M yds.
The cheapest fishing line I could find online (from Amazon) (I didn't search very hard though) was $10 for 440 yds of line. To circle the Earth, you'd need 44M / 440 = 100k spools = $1M for the fishing line.
Let's assume every spool needs about 1 kite. That's 100k kites. You can find kites online for like $5 each, but the cheapest way to get a kite is probably to bulk order wooden sticks and plastic film and make them yourself. Let's do the math on that.
Assume each kite requires a generous 5 ft^2 of film, and 10 ft of sticks. I found some bulk plastic film rolls online (from McMaster Carr) for about $0.02 per ft^2, and some wooden marshmellow sticks (on Amazon) for about $0.10 per foot. That makes $0.02*5 + $0.10*10 = $1.10 per kite. That totals $1.10 * 100k = $110k.
So using these estimates, this kite ring costs around $1.11M.
No clue if it would actually work though.
Edit: corrected a math error
You can get the line for less than $100k here, but I'm not sure about the strength... https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/500m-Nylon-Fishing-Line-for-Freshwater_1601256967845.html
This one would be $214k, advertises 36 kg of strength (.5mm diameter braided) https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/JOF-Japan-4-Brands-300M-500M_1601056379751.html?selectedCarrierCode=SEMI_MANAGED_STANDARD%40%40STANDARD
This one would be $3.5M, advertises 226 kg of strength (2 mm diameter braided) https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Ashconfish-Braided-Fishing-Line-16-Strands_62225575567.html