I assume there's some curvature of the Earth at play here, because just on a map I don't see immediately how the last two ones work. Also the line Google Maps draws goes across both Japan and North Korea, but not Russia for LA - Beijing. For New York - Bordeaux it can't do it at all.
The shortest path between 2 points on the surface of a sphere is a curved line, because the surface is curved. Flat maps are extremely inaccurate. Flat maps are a rectangle, but if you peeled the skin off of a sphere, you would not get a rectangle (try wrapping a ball with a sheet of paper - no cutting, folding, or overlapping). Here's the shortest flight path between New York (JFK) and Bordeaux (BOD) http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=jfk-bod
Interesting, but the flight plan brings up another problem as it appears to take you over Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which are part of France not Canada. Is it a bit hard to tell, though, as I can't zoom in.
Actually the answers of Estonia and Botswana just hit the tip of country. And Eritrea and Bangladesh are near misses of the answers of Saudi Arabia and Myanmar respectively. A mind-blowing quiz!
Great idea for a quiz. I second KoljiVriVoda in asking for more. I posted a comment that you could fly from Wellington to Buenos Aires only crossing Australia, but then noticed that the instructions said shortest route. Luckily I deleted the comment before anyone noticed.
Oops, and LOL all at once: as of now 631 takers have answered this quiz, 99% of whom guessed "Spain" - and all 99% of them are wrong! (including me when I wrote this). The direct line from Lisbon to Rome also transits Corsica. We've updated the clue, which will bring everyone's answers back onside.
What on earth does that mean (and which country are you in where it means that?!). I, and everyone else in New Zealand, will give you a blank look when they hear that.
Just flapping my goober here (am I using that right?), but not only is the caveat obvious, it's also grammatically incorrect: the repetition of "in which" and "in" is redundant.
I made This Quiz which is similar, but instead of two different cities, you name all the countries you fly over between any two points inside inhabited US territory.
To all people complaining, I have checked each pair, and they all appear to be correct (it is extremely close for Helsinki-Moscow, but still correct). You can look at the images here.
Fun fact: the shortest direct path from Auckland, NZ to Dakar doesn't pass over any other countries and you can fly from Durban, SA to Hawaii and only pass over Australia
maybe change that one?
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=fco-lis&MS=wls&DU=mi
https://www.distance.to/New-York-City,New-York,NY,USA/Paris,%C3%8Ele-de-France,FRA