An ellipsoid is a surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation.. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a surface that may be defined as the zero set of a polynomial of degree two in three variables. Among quadric surfaces, an ellipsoid is characterized by either of the two …

The World Geodetic System (WGS) is a standard for use in cartography, geodesy, and satellite navigation including GPS.This standard includes the definition of the coordinate system's fundamental and derived constants, the normal gravity Earth Gravitational Model (EGM), a description of the associated World Magnetic Model (WMM), and a current list of local datum …

An Earth ellipsoid or Earth spheroid is a mathematical figure approximating the Earth's form, used as a reference frame for computations in geodesy, astronomy, and the geosciences.Various different ellipsoids have been used as approximations.. It is a spheroid (an ellipsoid of revolution) whose minor axis (shorter diameter), which connects the geographical North Pole and South …

Geodesy (/ dʒ i ˈ ɒ d ə s i / jee-OD-ə-see) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivalent measurements for other planets (known as planetary geodesy). Geodynamical phenomena, …

In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole, with 0° at the Equator. Lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east–west as circles parallel to the equator.

E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide.Its name in English is e (pronounced / ˈ iː /); plural ees, Es or E's. It is the most commonly used letter in many languages, including Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, …

Earth radius (denoted as R ???? or ) is the distance from the center of Earth to a point on or near its surface. Approximating the figure of Earth by an Earth spheroid, the radius ranges from a maximum of nearly 6,378 km (3,963 mi) (equatorial radius, denoted a) to a minimum of nearly 6,357 km (3,950 mi) (polar radius, denoted b).. A nominal Earth radius is sometimes used as …

Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight line grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin to eliminate negative numbers, creating a 700 km by 1300 km grid. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly. In order to minimize the overall …

The geoid surface is irregular, unlike the reference ellipsoid (which is a mathematical idealized representation of the physical Earth as an ellipsoid), but is considerably smoother than Earth's physical surface.Although the "ground" of the Earth has excursions on the order of +8,800 m (Mount Everest) and −11,000 m (Marianas Trench), the geoid's deviation from an ellipsoid …

The great-circle distance, orthodromic distance, or spherical distance is the distance along a great circle.. It is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere, measured along the surface of the sphere (as opposed to a straight line through the sphere's interior).The distance between two points in Euclidean space is the length of a straight line between them, …