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A data set which describes the global average of the Earth's surface curvature is called the mean Earth Ellipsoid. It refers to a theoretical coherence between the geographic latitude and the meridional curvature of the geoid. The latter is close to the mean sea level, and therefore an ideal Earth ellipsoid has the same volume as the geoid.
This is a list of free and open-source software for geological data handling and interpretation. The list is split into broad categories, depending on the intended use of the software and its scope of functionality. Notice that 'free and open-source' requires that the source code is available and users are given a free software license.
The inverse problem for earth sections is: given two points, and on the surface of the reference ellipsoid, find the length, , of the short arc of a spheroid section from to and also find the departure and arrival azimuths (angle from true north) of that curve, and . The figure to the right illustrates the notation used here.
Legendre (1811, p. 180) pointed out that the equation for s is the same as the equation for the arc on an ellipse with semi-axes b √ 1 + e′ 2 cos 2 α 0 and b. In order to express the equation for λ in terms of σ, we write = ,
The geometrical separation between it and the reference ellipsoid is called the geoidal undulation, or more usually the geoid-ellipsoid separation, N. It varies globally between ±110 m. A reference ellipsoid, customarily chosen to be the same size (volume) as the geoid, is described by its semi-major axis (equatorial radius) a and flattening f.
An alternative parametrization exists that closely follows the angular parametrization of spherical coordinates: [1] = , = , = . Here, > parametrizes the concentric ellipsoids around the origin and [,] and [,] are the usual polar and azimuthal angles of spherical coordinates, respectively.
Vincenty's goal was to express existing algorithms for geodesics on an ellipsoid in a form that minimized the program length (Vincenty 1975a). His unpublished report (1975b) mentions the use of a Wang 720 desk calculator, which had only a few kilobytes of memory. To obtain good accuracy for long lines, the solution uses the classical solution ...
The weight of an object on Earth's surface is the downwards force on that object, given by Newton's second law of motion, or F = m a (force = mass × acceleration). Gravitational acceleration contributes to the total gravity acceleration, but other factors, such as the rotation of Earth, also contribute, and, therefore, affect the weight of the ...