Image: Britannica Figure of the Earth
Description: A meridian arc extending from the Shetland Islands, through Great Britain, France and Spain to El Aghuat in Algeria, whose parameters were calculated from surveys carried out in the mid to late 19th century. It yielded a value for the equatorial radius of the earth a = 6 377 935 metres, the ellipticity being assumed as 1/299.15. The radius of curvature of this arc is not uniform, being, in the mean, about 600 metres greater in the northern than in the southern part. The Greenwich meridian is depicted rather than the Paris meridian.
Title: Britannica Figure of the Earth
Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911
Author: Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 8, Slice 9., available freely at Project Gutenberg
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No
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