I recently had a discussion with friends about the longest flights they had taken, which led us to discuss the farthest cities apart.
Remebering always that distance can be measured in unlimited ways through “straight” lines along (not through) the surface of earth because of earth’s spherical shape. But we were defintely measuring the distance in the shortest way.
The pair of cities we mentioned, before doing any research on the subject, were:
Moscow – Buenos Aires
Ottawa - Aukland
Reykjavík – Auckland
Then, further research was done. And we used this tool to measure the shortest distance between any two cities. And as no one can clearly define a city. We assumed a city is any settlement with a population of more than 100,000.
To evaluate our finding significance and the chance of finding better results we had to know that the maximum distance from any point on earth to another is about 20,020KM. (the circumference of the earth averages 40,041KM).
Our best attempt was these two cities
Punta Arenas (Chile) to Ulan Bator (Mongolia) 19,378KM
We thought that we will not find any higher distance, because we were already almost hitting the maximum! But after more trials, we found out the world’s furthest two cities apart:
Taipei (Taiwan) to Asuncion (Paraguay) with a distance of 19,916 KM
At that point we were almost sure there will be no better result. We don’t think there are other two farthest cities apart in the world, unless someone proves us wrong.
UPDATE: Someone proved us wrong! A contributor on Answers.com with the name of HopelessFlight found out two cities which are further apart than our finding:
Pakanbaru, Indonesia to Quito, Ecuador (12,428 Miles 19,998KM) Definitely these are The Furthest Cities Apart in the world!
Update: Unbelievable! Another “Answers.com” user with the name of Pklimowicz, proved that there are still two further cities!
The distance between Cordoba, Spain and Hamilton, New Zealand is 12433 miles / 20009 km
Thank you Philip for pointing this out!
Another coup for the postscripter. This mysterious intellectual has proven time and time again that his enlightened brand of trivia is here to stay. Bravo postscripter – you made me the man I am today.
Hmm, this is too interesting to let go. I shall be the mastermind behind my own little set of calculations to see this for myself! I’ll let you know on my findings!
So I just returned home not long ago and have been sitting on the internet. For somereason I remembered my spending a good few hours one day last year trying to work out just which two cities were furthest apart on this Planet Earth. Anyway I quickly realised I had completely forgotten one of the cities, I remembered Quito but not the other.
So I made the same search I made that day last year when I attempted to answer the question (interestingly enough my interest in the question also stemmed from discussions about flight times) and couldn’t find my own answer – I’d completely forgotten about my account on answers.com.
I did however find this site, and when I saw the Taipei/Asuncion distance, I thought ‘dammit but I know I found a further one’, imagine my surprise when I saw my user name at the bottom with an update, almost had a heart attack lol
I’m glad I found the calculation again, you would not believe how long I spent working that out, not that it took a ridiculously long time, rather you wouldn’t believe anyone had as much time to waste as I did.
For what it’s worth as an addition, I am and was as certain as I could be that those two are the furthest apart. I kept on searching for awhile after I found them, to make sure. But I found no others that fit the bill, not surprising when you see that Pekanbaru and Quito are only 11 miles short of the maximum possible distance! They may well be some 3 people villages slightly further apart somehwere in the world, but for actual cities (and I made sure Pekanbaru fits the bill, population was over 700’000 if I remember correctly) I am 99.99% certain that these are the furthest apart. Tbh at 11 miles only from the max, you could probably find two places in Quito and Pekanbaru that are the maximum distance apart, as the distance calculation probably uses noted city centres as the base. Who knows lol
I am very happy to see you commenting here! I want to take the opportunity to thank and congratulate you to be the first to get an answer for that question.
Good you stumbled upon my blog. And I can understand your surprise of finding your name
A commenter on the Wiki Answers page http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Discuss:What_two_cities_are_farthest_away_from_each_other_on_the_earth%27s_surface offered: Cordoba, Spain (pop 325’000), to Hamilton, New Zealand (pop 143’000).
He makes the distance out to be 12433 mi/20009 km.
Wolfram Alpha says ( http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=from+Cordoba,+Spain+to+Hamilton,+New+Zealand ) 19946 km – and 19920 for Pekanbaru to Quito ( http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=from%20Pekanbaru%20to%20Quito ).
Thanks a lot Philip for pointing that out!! I updated my post!