This is the longest straight path you can sail without hitting land

The route stretches from Pakistan to Russia and covers an impressive 32,089.7 kilometers. Photo / 123RF

If you've ever wanted to sail off into the sunset and just keep going, this could be the route for you.

In 2012, Reddit user kepleronlyknows poised the question on the subreddit /r/MapPorn, posting a map of the world purporting to show the longest straight-line path through water without hitting land. It showed a route stretching from Pakistan to eastern Russia.

The longest straight line: you can sail almost 20,000 miles in a straight line from Pakistan to the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. [720x360] from MapPorn

Other Reddit users came up with their own versions and the debate was stired.

However, the MIT Technology Review reports that computer scientists have settled the question for once and for all.

Rohan Chabukswar of the United Technologies Research Center in Ireland and Kushal Mukherjee from IBM Research India took on the challenge, developing an algorithm to calculate the longest straight-line path on both land or sea.

After analysing all possible routes, they found that kepleronlyknows – real name Patrick Anderson – was right.

The researchers found the longest possible path over water started in Balochistan, Pakistan, passed between Africa and Madagascar and then between Antarctica and Tierra del Fuego in South America, before ending in in the Karaginsky District, Kamchatka Krai, in Russia.

That clocks in at an impressive 32,089.7 kilometers long.

They also found the longest path over land, without hitting water, which runs from Jinjiang, Fujian, in China, through Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia, ending in Sagres in Portugal. This route covers 15 countries, over 11,241.1 kilometers.

Now we'll just have to wait and see who will be the first to attempt these journeys.