NAME TOBIAS NDINDE

REG# R111299B

MODULE GEODESY SVG209

ASSIGNMENT 1

LEVEL 3.1
Knowledge of the planet has been increasing from the earliest times although much has been a
mystrery , thoughts of the earth shape gradually progressed from flat, through a disc or short
cylinder to a number of variations on these. PYTHAGORAS (c.580_500bc) the earth was considered
to be spherical, He reasoned that the gods would create a perfect figure and therefore the earth was
created to be spherical in shape, if for no other reason than that the sphere was thought to be a
perfect regular solid . As might be expect not all authorities agreed ,scorn was poured on the idea of
a round earth and queries raised as to how would the earth retain water.

ARISTOTLE supported the Pythagoras spherical figure idea 100years later,since the spherical shape
was mostly widely supported during th GreekEra, efforts to determine its size is still followed First
attempt at putting dimensions on the earth are credited to him. He recorded diameter of 400
stades, this figure could vary from 84000 to63000 km depending on choice of conversion
factor .However it is not known how he reached this figure

ARCHIMEDES _A century later he quoted a diameter of 300000 stades (63000 to 47000km) . It might
be even that he used a different length of stade and that both used a figure close to 63000km.

ERATOSTHENES ( 276_195bc) was librarian at the famous library in Alexandria ,a philosopher set out
to make more explicit measurements. He observd that on the day of the summer solstice, the
midday sun shone to the bottom of a well of Syene.At the same time , he observed the sun was
directly overhead at Alexandria; instead ,it cast a shadow with the vertical equal1/50 of a
circle(7degrees 12 minutes).to these observations Eratosthenes applied certain known facts (1)that
on the day of hte summer solstice; the midday sun was directly over the line of the summer tropic
zone (2)between Alexandria and syene was 500miles;(3)Alexandria and Syene lay on a direct
northsouth line.

From these observations and known facts Eratosthenes concluded that since the angular deviation
of the sun from the vertical at Alexandria was also the angle of the subtended arc , the linear
distance between Aexandria and syene was 1/50 of the circumference or the earth (25000miles).the
actual measure used by Eratosthenes was the stadia which no one knows it’s equivalence to today’s
units. A currently accepted value for the earth’ s circumference at the equator is 24901metres based
upon the World Geodetic System.

It is remarkable that such accuracy was obtained, in view of the fact that most of the known fact
and his observations were incorrect. Although it is true that the sun at noon is directly overhead at
tropic of cancer on the dayn of the summer solstice, it was erroneously concluded that Syene lay on
the line. Actually Ssyene is 37miles north. The true distance between Alexandria and Syene is
453miles not 500.

POISEIDONIUS He used a different technique in obtaining a comparable result of 240 000 stades he
noted that a sitting star was hidden from view in the most parts of Greece but that i just grazed the
horizon at Rhodes .he measured elevation of the same star at Alexandria and concluded taha the
angle 1/48 of the circle of the earth 2400miles.his errors compensated for the one another and he
achieved a fairly accurate result.
I-Hsing In China in the 8th century A.D another variation theme rose when a Tantric Buddhist monk
also a famous mathematician and astronomer I-Hsing was charged with organisation of observations
over an arc of 5 000km on the 114 degree east meridian.Ths all arose from the belief that the
shadow length of 8 foot gnomon changed by 1 Chinese inch for every 439m travelled along a
meridian. The rate of change was nearly 4 inches and however gave the value of the earth’s
circumference of 56 700km

AL_MAMUM _During A.D.820 Calph Al-Mamun in Arabia directed his astronomers to measure
several lines(probably 4) around Bagdad and Al Raqqah.From a central solution point parties went
both north and south until the vertical angles to the pole star had changed by 1 degree. How the
distance was measured is again open to doubt. Some records suggest long knotted ropes, others the
distance travelled by horsemen in a given time .However measured the distance were recorded in
Arab miles with an accepted result of 56 2/3arab miles for 1degree but to an equivalent 111,073km
gives the circumference as 39986km

FRISIUS AND SNELLIUS Gemma Frisius brought forward the principle of triangulation in a publication
though it was not certain that if it was observable since no practice was done. The technique was
further developed by Tycho Brahe were real landmarks was the technique used by Snellius .
Between Bergen op Zoom Alkmaar in the Netherleands ,snellus observed a triangulation scheme
with five baselines . Instead of measuring 100+ km by tape all that was recpuired was to very
accurately measure at least 1 line,In 1615 a Dutchman Willebrord Snellius measured an arc more
than 80 miles long with a series of 33 triangles. Furthermore, his computation of the earth’s
circumference was too small by about 3.4%.

FERNEL _Jean Fernel measured an arc of 1 degree between Paris and Amiens with the use of
carriage wheel revolution in determining the distance. He first measured the height of the sun at
midday and then calculated the height at the point 1 degree farther north and he travelled in that
direction till he obtained the position where he got that value. He finally deduced the distance
between two points to be 68.096 Italian miles .However they are doubts about the exact
equivalence of Italian miles to other units like toise and it was concluded to be generally 56 746
toise.

PICARD In 1669-70 Jean Picard a Frenchman measured two arcs on the meridian through Paris and
obtained results too large by only 0.7%. However Newton used Picard’s measurement in
development of his theory of universal gravitation and he also concluded that the earth is flattened
at the poles due to the earth’s rotation

THE CASSINIS Byi the early 17th century several conflicting measurement and calculations as to the
shape of the had been