These flat earthers are getting out of hand. The shortest path is this line because the earth is curved.
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be 1 curve instead of zigzagging? You’re forgetting the ocean current.
I was joking since it's a meme. Its because of tides. Someone posted her response below.
earth is wrinkly because of all the water
Oh, I looked up a bit more about this — apparently the woman who swam this particular recorded route is disabled. As in she cannot physically use her legs.
Really cool stuff, but it's also a little misleading — look up Sophie Etheridge for more.
They probably did swim "straight" but it took them a really long time and this was the tidal flow during her swim, ergo they went straight but the water they were in moved back and forth.
Since there are more than two full periods, it took more than 12h?! Wow I'm usually dead after 12 min swimming
29 hours and 4 minutes as reported in another thread
Ah right, I mixed it up. Had in my head that full tidal period is 6h, but that's the time for one half. So something over 24h makes a lot of sense.
And I bet that actively going straight would require extra energy and be slower than getting carried by the current
Correct
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Because it's not called "English Strait"
English gay then?
English Mig-17.
Look up it's NATO designation.
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So, given that the line is the tides? currents? If they adjusted their swimming angle to make the GPS line straight, I wonder if it would affect their time or energy expended. I think it wouldn't but whatcha think?
Apparently trying to swim the straight line would mean you have to swim against the added friction of the water.
Snake line has far less friction. The energy being used to move you north and south is simply impartedto you by the environment, and while it doesn't actually make you go any faster from your source to your target trying to fight it would be a significant amount of work.
Tbh I think this is a perfect example of "there are no stupid questions"
Person didn't know or didn't think about currents, bet you he still got roasted though
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Terrifying
The curious thing is that from her perspective, she was only swimming straight the whole time, and only expending energy going straight. It was the 'gifted' energy of the tide that caused the oscillation (from our perspective).
Just struck me as interesting to think that from her point of view she was swimming as straight and as efficiently as was possible.
You could imagine a coordinate system in which she took the shortest path, yet the projection in our system doesn't look like a straight line
Non-euclidian swimming, my favorite
It likely was the most efficient energy-wise, why waste energy going against the current when it'll undo itself anyways.
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I fucking hate the way Facebook changed how the site works so that clicking on an image no longer puts it in your browser history. Earlier today I saw a post where the swimmer whose track was shown in this specific image responded to the comments. It was actually quite an amusing interaction and I wish I could go back and share it here.
But also: the swimmer was a she, not a he.
edit:
wait I found it:
Sophie's link: https://sophie-adaptive-athlete.com/2023/01/18/2023-channel-swim-introduction/
Text transcription
A series of Facebook comments.
Claire Fletcher: He didn’t make it. Is he ok or he still swimming? [attached is a close-up of the path, showing that it ends some distance away from the coastline]
Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete: Claire Fletcher I did make it, the GPS transponder was on my pilot boat but the beach was too shallow for it to come in close enough so instead my pilot launched the small RIB boat to accompany me to shore 🙂
Melissa Dupree Haws: Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete wow! The real swimmer here! I’m so amazed at this feat of athleticism.
Claire Fletcher: Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete omg the actual swimmer is here AND a she not a he! That’s amazing! What made you want to do it? Was it a personal goal or for charity? Full respect to you by the way, well done!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Robert Mothersole: Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete so while you're here, if you dont mind me asking.....Why didn't you go straight ?
Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete: Robert Mothersole I did, in the English Channel the tides move up and down rather than across so you get 6 hours up, then 6 hours down. I swam on a Spring tide, which is a bigger tide to start with and I'm not a super fast swimmer (around 2 min 15 per 100m). So i was pushed up the channel for 6 hours, then down the channel for 6 hours twice...so i was swimming forwards but going sideways, if that makes sense?
Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete: Claire Fletcher its a long story...it was a personal, life changing goal, it raised money for charity and that money went to training swimming teachers to become specialist disability swimming teachers. If you want to know more then I write a blog and during the year of my channel training I documented my training each month. This is the first one explaining about me/how I got to where I was at the time - https://sophie-adaptive-athlete.com/.../2023-channel.../ If you scroll through my other blog posts I wrote multiple blogs about my actual swim too 🙂
Claire Fletcher: Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete that’s truly amazing! Well done you! Should be very proud of yourself! I am going to binge read your blogs now with a cuppa lol
Robert Mothersole: Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete it does make sense, it's a bit different from the local swimming baths, thanks for your answer and congratulations on swimming the Channel. Brilliant achievement 👍
Sophie Etheridge - Adaptive Athlete: Claire Fletcher hope you enjoyed them and your cuppa!
Also, there was this hilarious comment under the original image:
Can someone explain the "I did it for charity" angle? I never understood why would someone do a sporty thing, that they clearly wanted to do and would probably do anyway, motivate me or anyone else to donate money to a charity. To be honest it always felt quite performative and self serving to me.
You get people to "pledge" donations. It's partly about raising awareness for the charity and partly because a lot of people are more likely to donate to these types of drives versus donating just because.
Think of it the other way around, doing extreme athletic feats (even for fun) is a great way to attract attention, and using that momentum to attract sponsors for charity is a nice extra to do some good
"They're replacing the internet with something else" is literal. It's harder and harder to find what you want because you're not allowed to have what you want anymore. You're allowed to work hard till you die and hope Big Tech shares its merciful bounty with you. You can't spell "social media" without "soma."
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She had to go around all the minefields we laid to keep the French out.
Do you still have the galleons filled with gunpowder or is the isle ripe for Spanish invasion?
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For roughly six hours the tide will take the swimmer 'up' the Channel, and then as the tide changes direction, the following six hours will take the swimmer 'down' the Channel. This up and down movement of the water is relentless and unavoidable.
When traversing the English Channel, the boat pilot pays respect to the aformentioned tides when heading for France, which means the tidal affect will be perpendicular to the direction of the swimmer. It is incredibly rare for a swimmer to ever be swimming with or against the tide.
The moon's position relative to the earth and sun changes, creating different strengths of tide. The smaller tides are called neap tides, and the bigger ones are spring tides. Historically, swimmers have made their attempts on neap tides, as the belief is that this reduces the effect of wind against tide. It also reduces the risk of the swimmer missing the land target of Cap Gris Nez in France.
So she was swimming for roughly 18 hours? I'm impressed and terrified.
29 hours and 4 minutes actually.
https://sophie-adaptive-athlete.com/2023/09/25/sta-channel-swim-2023-part-4/
Savage feat of endurance. I wonder how many calories that burns.
All of them
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Because he’s swimming the English Channel and not the English Strait, duh.
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