Obviously they mean that you don't need to make any turns and that straight means an arc around the earth and not through the Earth, unless someone has a very different idea what sailing means...

[–] Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Depends on what you mean by help. Yes, it would communicate the point better, but it's engagement bait, so the ambiguity is a feature rather than a bug.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Yes I think they mean it's a continuous line, not a "straight" line. As in the line is uninterrupted (continuous). It's also possible they mean the line qualifies as a nonlinear function since it also doesn't double back over itself (A function is a relationship where each input value (X) will create only one output value (Y)).

Math is hard. Describing lines like this is math - calculus actually due to the curve, and actually not just basic calculus but vector calculus because it involves an x,y, and z axis. Most laypeople will struggle to describe a line with the correct jargon.