f the spherical We must here interrupt the historical form of the earth, and one of the ships narrative to say a word about spheroids. of Magellan, after a three years' voyage, A prolate spheroid is generated by an accomplished its circumnavigation. With ellipse, revolving about its major axis, the… … vations. In 1617 Snellius conceived the idea of triangulating from a known base line, and thus, near Leyden, he measured a meridian arc which gives 55020 toises for the length a degree. Norwood, in 1633, chained the distance from London to York and deduced 57424 toises for a degree. Picard, who was…
Engineering
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