Earth's Shape It is noticeable that, whereas only 50 years ago new determinations could differ from previous ones by hundreds of meters, today the modifications are of the order of 1 to 2m only. Before accepting any of the above values for practical application, the user should contact the appropriate documentation office of a country so as to ascertain any local modifications to the numbers. ~SPHEROID AND ELLIPSOID Iwo confusing terms will occur in the context of the earth figure—spheroid and ellipsoid. Is there any difference? Certainly they tend to be used inter- changeably. Mathematical reference books define them separately: a Spheroid is a solid generated by rotating an ellipse about either axis, while an ellipsoid isa solid for which all plane sections through one axis are ellipses and through the other are ellipses or circles. However, if any two of the three axes of the cllipsoid are equal, the figure becomes a spheroid, and if all three are equal, it becomes a sphere. In the case where two of the axes are equal, the strict definition is then of an ellipsoid of revolution. The dictionary suggests, however, that the term spheroid can also refer to any slightly nonspherical shape but not necessarily a mathematically definable one. If an ellipse is rotated about its minor axis, it produces an oblate shape, and if rotated about its major axis, it produces a prolate shape (figure 15). Thus in figure 15, for oblate there is rotation of BDO about BO and for Prolate rotation of ADO about AO. In the ellipsoid, when EDF moves parallel ‘0 AOB, it produces ellipses of varying size, Though modern texts use the terms in an arbitrary manner, in geodetic circles there is a tendency toward accepting the terms ellipsoid and ellipsoid °of revolution, As you can see from the table on page 31, there are many ellipsoids. The first international figure was developed in 1924, but today the advanced technology of GPS and related systems allows the use of various world-based figures (see Chapter 10), Even so, the most ace ‘eptable figure, DOD WGS 84, differs from the geoid (see next section) in the range of +60 to —100 m.