Originally Posted by jcx
So last night, I'm sitting on my crewseat for landing and the guy next to me asks the question, " will the flight be longer going home?" to which I said, Yep, it will be about 40 mins longer actually, the old fella nods agreeingly and says to his wife! "told you it will take longer, its common sence dear, the earth will be spinning the wrong way"
Um ....... this is actually correct. The reason that transatlantic westbounds take longer than eastbounds (40 mins being a common value) is that the winds invariably blow from North America to Europe, and the reason for this is due to the rotation of the earth. The technical name for this is the Coriolis Effect.