Skip to main content

Questions tagged [geodesy]

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.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
17 votes
3 answers
13k views

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 ...
WAF's user avatar
  • 370
84 votes
7 answers
60k views

What place on Earth is closest to the Sun?

What is the location on Earth that is closest to the Sun? I've seen this question asked many times, and answered in varied and contradictory ways: The most common answer is “the summit of Chimborazo ...
Camilo Rada's user avatar
  • 17.7k
19 votes
2 answers
669 views

To what accuracy and precision do we know the volume of the Earth?

Satellites such as GOCE and GRACE measure the geoid with unprecedented accuracy. Altimeters can determine local surface elevation with millimetre-precision. This makes me wonder: to what precision ...
gerrit's user avatar
  • 11.9k
6 votes
1 answer
259 views

Why do we measure eustatic sea-level from the center of earth?

Earth is rotating so it has a ellipsoidal shape. The measurement will therefore be different from equator and pole. So why do we measure eustatic sea-level from the center of earth?
Tayyaba's user avatar
  • 61