Geodesy is the science of accurately measuring and understanding three fundamental properties of the Earth: its geometric shape, its orientation in space, and its gravity field as well as the changes of these properties with time.
Questions tagged [geodesy]
21 questions
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Is there a name for the great circle where latitude and longitude are equal?
Is there a name for the great circle where latitude and longitude are equal? I have attempted a google search but only the equator and the prime meridian are defined in the sources I can find. ( It is of relevance in developing a map application…
Toivo Säwén
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Why is Earth not a sphere?
We've all learned at school that the Earth was a sphere. Actually, it is more nearly a slightly flattened sphere - an oblate ellipsoid of revolution, also called an oblate spheroid. This is an ellipse rotated about its shorter axis. What are the…
WAF
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Is it a coincidence that the circumference of the Earth in kilometers is almost $2^{12}$?
The circumference of the Earth has been measured to be $40,075 \,\pu{km}$, which is only $21 \,\pu{km}$ from $40,096 = 2^{12}$. For reference, $40,075 \approx 2^{11.992}$. This is probably a strange coincidence, but originally a meter was set to be…
LMol
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Is there a way to intuitively explain that the North of Sweden is closer to Australia than the South?
For reasons unknown, I started pondering what cities/towns in Sweden and Australia are the closest to each other. My hunch was that some town in the South such as Malmö or Karlskrona would be closest to some town in the North(west) of Australia such…
Toivo Säwén
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Does the magnitude of gravity stay the same at all points along the geoid
And how does this differ from the gravitational potential along the geoid (which is equal).
AKC
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Has the pear shape of the earth been measured?
I have heard Neil degrasse Tyson say the earth is pear shaped but I can’t find any source for this.
We all know the earth has an equatorial bulge because it spins but Neil says “it’s slightly wider below the equator than above it”
I’d just like…
Beans
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