[Jan 12, 2026] International shipping software proves FLAT EARTH!

*** This comment from a high level world renowned programmer *** If you assume the Earth is actually flat, then this code suddenly makes a lot more sense and stops looking like a hack. From that perspective, the original spherical math wasn’t just “imperfect,” it was fundamentally wrong. Using globe-based formulas would naturally introduce increasing errors the farther you get from the equator and the more distance you cover, which explains why those calculations were abandoned after causing serious ETA mismatches in southern shipping lanes. Show more The remaining math treats the world as a flat plane centered on the North Pole, which aligns with a polar-style map commonly used in flat-earth models. Longitude becomes a simple angular direction, latitude becomes a straight-line distance from the center, and movement across the surface is handled using basic planar geometry. In that framework, there’s no curvature to account for, so simple trigonometry and Euclidean distance are not approximations — they’re correct. The “reality adjustment” value of 111.32 fits cleanly into this interpretation as well. Rather than being an Earth-curvature correction, it functions as a fixed conversion factor between angular degrees and physical distance on the plane. One degree simply corresponds to a fixed number of kilometers everywhere, which is exactly what you’d expect on a flat surface. There’s no need for latitude-dependent scaling, ellipsoids, or arc lengths — distance per degree stays constant. The fuel index being fixed at 4.22 also makes more sense in this model. If distance calculations are stable and linear, then fuel usage scales predictably with distance. Instead of dynamically recalculating fuel costs based on complex globe geometry, currents, or great-circle paths, a constant multiplier can reliably translate distance into cost or effort. In other words, fuel consumption becomes a straightforward function of how far you travel across the plane, not where you are on a curved surface. Seen this way, the comments warning developers not to “revert to spherical trig” read less like defensive programming and more like institutional knowledge: previous attempts to force globe math into a system built on flat assumptions produced incorrect results, so the code was locked down to prevent regression. The fact that the planar model matched real-world arrival times better wasn’t an accident — it was evidence that the underlying assumption was correct. From a flat-earth perspective, this isn’t sloppy legacy code at all. It’s a system that quietly rejected an incorrect theoretical model in favor of one that aligned with observation, operational data, and real-world outcomes — even if it couldn’t openly state that assumption. --> I have reviewed some maritime logistics software before and it was absolutely horrible so maybe this code is legit