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Looking Down A Well: A Brief History of Geodesy

Eratosthenes discovered that you could measure the circumference of the Earth by looking down a well and created Geodesy

submitted by: kitteh9lives
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Looking Down A Well: A Brief History of Geodesy. Eratosthenes discovered that you could measure the circumference of the Earth by looking down a well and created Geodesy
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Hits: 7998 | Favorites: 6 | Emailed: 2 | Rating: 3.2 | Category: Science | Date: 02/24/2012
 
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SilverThread
Male, 30-39, Western US
 3360 Posts 		Saturday, February 25, 2012 10:37:39 AM
Damnit Davy, I bet your a hit a parties!

I agree with your sentiment though, not only is it fascinating to learn, but understanding the processes by which we acquired this knowledge is equally amazing.
5Cats
Male, 40-49, Canada
 16953 Posts 		Saturday, February 25, 2012 9:45:33 AM
Interesting!@ Something that wasn't invented first by ancient Greeks!
Draculya
Male, 30-39, Asia
 6308 Posts 		Friday, February 24, 2012 11:21:49 PM
"OK, I'mma shut up now before I attract a bully."

BOF! Smoothie!
davymid
Male, 30-39, Europe
 11682 Posts 		Friday, February 24, 2012 10:34:46 PM
I love this sh*t, I have a passion for geodetics (sad, I know).

Say, here's a head-melter. In the video buddy describes Everest as the "tallest mountain in the world". See, that`s where it get`s funky.

Everest is better described as the "highest mountain in the world", being the highest point on our planet above sea level. The "tallest mountain in the world" is probably Mauna Kea in Hawaii, being much larger from base to apex. Sure, most of it is underwater, but why is sea level the measure? F*ck, if you want to get really funky, and pick your base-point datum of measurement of height as the centre of the earth (and why not? It`s just as arbitrary as the rest of the datums), then the beaches around the equator are higher than Everest due to the earth being an oblate spheroid because of planetary rotation.

OK, I`mma shut up now before I attract a bully.
MrPeabody
Male, 30-39, Eastern US
 1449 Posts 		Friday, February 24, 2012 7:32:17 PM
Guess I didn't pay attention, but this video is from NASA, so I guess that would make the narrator American.
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