What country you would hit if you went straight where you're pointing
This app was designed to answer my wife’s question “what country would we hit if we went straight” (generally posed while pointing her phone) But with two additional twists: 1. It loads up historical maps from different years (right now 1 BC, 700 AD, 1000 AD, 1300 AD, 1800 AD, 1900 AD) so you can see what you would hit if you had a time machine AND you went in the direction your phone is pointing 2. Tap a country/territory for an (AI-generated) blurb on what you are pointing at How it works: Starting from your phone’s bearing, we trace the great-circle in 200 km steps, prefilter…
What country you would hit if you went straight where you're pointing launched on August 20, 2025 with 80 votes, #433 of 8,530 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.
In plain words
This app answers the question "what country would you hit if you went straight in the direction you're pointing?" by using a phone's compass to trace a great-circle path across a map. It includes historical maps from 1 BC through 1900 AD, showing what users would encounter at different points in time. Tapping on any country displays an AI-generated description of that location. The app is designed for curious travelers and geography enthusiasts wanting to explore global directions and historical geography.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Download Leascope by Ben Gross on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Leascope.
Education Developer Ben Gross Language EN English Size 14.7 MB iPhone, iPad Find out where you would end up if you kept going straight Historical map data from André Ourednik's Historical Basemaps project more To help you better understand the developer’s responses, see Privacy Definitions and Examples . Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learnfrom apps.apple.com
In the maker’s words, at launch
This app was designed to answer my wife’s question “what country would we hit if we went straight” (generally posed while pointing her phone) But with two additional twists: 1. It loads up historical maps from different years (right now 1 BC, 700 AD, 1000 AD, 1300 AD, 1800 AD, 1900 AD) so you can see what you would…
Does a similar job
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Time Portal – Get dropped into history, guess where you landed2025 · eggnog.ai · ▲497Hi HN! I love imagining the past, so I made Time Portal, a game where you are dropped into a historical event and see AI video footage from that moment. You have to guess where you are in time and on the map. It’s like GeoGuessr (and heavily inspired by it!) but for historical events. The videos are all created with AI. It’s a pipeline of Flux (images), Kling (video), and mmaudio (audio). The videos aren’t always historically accurate to the last detail. They might incorporate elements of folklore or have details from popular beliefs about the way things looked rather than the latest…
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Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part
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