What name is given to the scientific study of the size and shape of the earth?
"is also contended that the northern middle latitudes were slightly flattened and the southern middle latitudes bulged in a similar amount. This concept suggested a slightly pear-shaped Earth and was the subject of much public discussion. Modern geodesy tends to retain the ellipsoid of revolution as a reference ellipsoid and treat triaxiality and pear shape as a part of the geoid figure: they are represented by the spherical harmonic coefficients formula_14 and formula_15, respectively, corresponding to degree and order numbers 2.2 for the triaxiality and 3.0 for the pear shape. Simpler local approximations are possible, e.g., osculating sphere and local"
"Geodesy Geodesy (), is the earth science of accurately measuring and understanding the Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravitational field. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivalent measurements for other planets (known as planetary geodesy). Geodynamical phenomena include crustal motion, tides, and polar motion, which can be studied by designing global and national control networks, applying space and terrestrial techniques, and relying on datums and coordinate systems. The word ""geodesy"" comes from the Ancient Greek word ""geodaisia"" (literally, ""division of the Earth""). It is primarily concerned with positioning within the temporally"
"zhi cao"" treatise also used the same terminology to describe the shape of the Earth that the Eastern-Han scholar Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) had used to describe the shape of the sun and moon (i.e. that the former was as round as a crossbow bullet, and the latter was the shape of a ball). Geodesy, also called geodetics, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth, its gravitational field and geodynamic phenomena (polar motion, Earth tides, and crustal motion) in three-dimensional time-varying space. Geodesy is primarily concerned with positioning and the gravity field and"
"Earth. Knowing the difference in angle between two points on the Earth's surface and the surface distance between them allows a calculation of the Earth's size. Using observations at Rhodes (in Greece) and Alexandria (in Egypt) and the distance between them, the Ancient Greek philosopher Posidonius actually did use this technique to calculate the circumference of the planet to within perhaps 4% of the correct value (though modern equivalents of his units of measure are not precisely known). Since the 1500s, many people have sailed or flown completely around the world in all directions, and none have discovered an edge"
"Earth science Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. It is the branch of science dealing with the physical constitution of the earth and its atmosphere. Earth science is the study of our planet’s physical characteristics, from earthquakes to raindrops, and floods to fossils. Earth science can be considered to be a branch of planetary science, but with a much older history. “Earth science” encompasses four main branches of study, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere, each of which is further broken down into more specialized fields. There are"
"geometrical aspects of their temporal variations, although it can also include the study of Earth's magnetic field. Especially in the German speaking world, geodesy is divided into geomensuration (""Erdmessung"" or ""höhere Geodäsie""), which is concerned with measuring the Earth on a global scale, and surveying (""Ingenieurgeodäsie""), which is concerned with measuring parts of the surface. The Earth's shape can be thought of in at least two ways; As the science of geodesy measured Earth more accurately, the shape of the geoid was first found not to be a perfect sphere but to approximate an oblate spheroid, a specific type of"
"went through four major phases: environmental determinism, regional geography, the quantitative revolution, and critical geography. The strong interdisciplinary links between geography and the sciences of geology and botany, as well as economics, sociology and demographics have also grown greatly, especially as a result of earth system science that seeks to understand the world in a holistic view. Geography Geography (from Greek: , ""geographia"", literally ""earth description"") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth and planets. The first person to use the word γεωγραφία was Eratosthenes (276–194 BC). Geography"
"History of geodesy Geodesy (/dʒiːˈɒdɨsi/), also named geodetics, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth. The history of geodesy began in pre-scientific antiquity and blossomed during the Age of Enlightenment. Early ideas about the figure of the Earth held the Earth to be flat (see flat Earth), and the heavens a physical dome spanning over it. Two early arguments for a spherical Earth were that lunar eclipses were seen as circular shadows which could only be caused by a spherical Earth, and that Polaris is seen lower in the sky as one travels"
"meters (0.002 percent of the Earth's radii). The US geodesist Hayford derived a global ellipsoid in ~1910, based on intercontinental isostasy and an accuracy of 200 m. It was adopted by the IUGG as ""international ellipsoid 1924"". History of geodesy Geodesy (/dʒiːˈɒdɨsi/), also named geodetics, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth. The history of geodesy began in pre-scientific antiquity and blossomed during the Age of Enlightenment. Early ideas about the figure of the Earth held the Earth to be flat (see flat Earth), and the heavens a physical dome spanning over it."
"(from the Greek γῆ, gê, ""earth"" and λόγος, logos, ""study"") is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change. Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 17th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries. After the development of the computer in the latter half of the 20th century, breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved. Space science or Astronomy is the"
"British author Arthur C. Clarke once noted that ""Earth"" would have been better named ""Ocean"". The scientific study of water and Earth's water cycle is hydrology; hydrodynamics studies the physics of water in motion. The more recent study of the sea in particular is oceanography. This began as the study of the shape of the ocean's currents but has since expanded into a large and multidisciplinary field: it examines the properties of seawater; studies waves, tides, and currents; charts coastlines and maps the seabeds; and studies marine life. The subfield dealing with the sea's motion, its forces, and the forces"
"bases (the international nautical mile is defined as exactly 1,852 m, corresponding to a rounding of 1,000/0.54 m to four digits). In geodesy, temporal change can be studied by a variety of techniques. Points on the Earth's surface change their location due to a variety of mechanisms: The science of studying deformations and motions of the Earth's crust and the solid Earth as a whole is called geodynamics. Often, study of the Earth's irregular rotation is also included in its definition. Techniques for studying geodynamic phenomena on the global scale include: Geodesy Geodesy (), is the earth science of accurately"
"Geography Geography (from Greek: , ""geographia"", literally ""earth description"") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth and planets. The first person to use the word γεωγραφία was Eratosthenes (276–194 BC). Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and come to be. Geography is often defined in terms of two branches: human geography and physical geography. Human geography deals with the study of people and their communities, cultures, economies,"
"Geology Geology (from the Ancient Greek γῆ, ""gē""(""earth"") and -λoγία, ""-logia"", (""study of"", ""discourse"")) is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Geology can also refer to the study of the solid features of any terrestrial planet or natural satellite such as Mars or the Moon. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other earth sciences, including hydrology and the atmospheric sciences, and so is treated as one major aspect of integrated earth system science and planetary science. Geology describes the structure of the Earth"
"determine the size and shape of the Earth. The conference recommended the adoption of the metre and the creation of an international metre commission, according to the proposal of Johann Jacob Baeyer, Adolphe Hirsch and Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero. The French Académie des Sciences and the Bureau des Longitudes in Paris drew the attention of the French government to this issue. The Academy of St Petersburg and the English Standards Commission were in agreement with the recommendation. In November 1869 the French government issued invitations to join this commission. Spain accepted and Ibáñez took part in the Committee"
"Planetary science Planetary science or, more rarely, planetology, is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), moons, and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history. It is a strongly interdisciplinary field, originally growing from astronomy and earth science, but which now incorporates many disciplines, including planetary geology (together with geochemistry and geophysics), cosmochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, hydrology, theoretical planetary science, glaciology, and exoplanetology. Allied disciplines include space physics, when concerned with"
"Planetary science Planetary science or, more rarely, planetology, is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), moons, and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history. It is a strongly interdisciplinary field, originally growing from astronomy and earth science, but which now incorporates many disciplines, including planetary geology (together with geochemistry and geophysics), cosmochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, hydrology, theoretical planetary science, glaciology, and exoplanetology. Allied disciplines include space physics, when concerned with"
"Geomorphology Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: γῆ, ""gê"", ""earth""; μορφή, ""morphḗ"", ""form""; and λόγος, ""lógos"", ""study"") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near the Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do, to understand landform history and dynamics and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and numerical modeling. Geomorphologists work within disciplines such as physical geography, geology, geodesy, engineering geology, archaeology, climatology and geotechnical engineering. This broad base of interests contributes to many"
"(listed in alphabetical order): Geomorphometry Geomorphometry, or geomorphometrics, is the science of quantitative land surface analysis. It gathers various mathematical, statistical and image processing techniques that can be used to quantify morphological, hydrological, ecological and other aspects of a land surface. Common synonyms for geomorphometry are geomorphological analysis, terrain morphometry or terrain analysis and land surface analysis. Geomorphometrics is the discipline based on the computational measures of the geometry, topography and shape of the Earth's horizons, and their temporal change. In simple terms, geomorphometry aims at extracting (land) surface parameters (morphometric, hydrological, climatic etc.) and objects (watersheds, stream networks, landforms"
"deals with the measurement and representation of the planets of the Solar System, their gravitational fields and geodynamic phenomena (polar motion in three-dimensional, time-varying space. The science of geodesy has elements of both astrophysics and planetary sciences. The shape of the Earth is to a large extent the result of its rotation, which causes its equatorial bulge, and the competition of geologic processes such as the collision of plates and of vulcanism, resisted by the Earth's gravity field. These principles can be applied to the solid surface of Earth (orogeny; Few mountains are higher than , few deep sea trenches"
"varying gravity field. Geodesy in the German-speaking world is divided into ""higher geodesy"" (""""Erdmessung"""" or """"höhere Geodäsie""""), which is concerned with measuring the Earth on the global scale, and ""practical geodesy"" or ""engineering geodesy"" (""""Ingenieurgeodäsie""""), which is concerned with measuring specific parts or regions of the Earth, and which includes surveying. Such geodetic operations are also applied to other astronomical bodies in the solar system. It is also the science of measuring and understanding the earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravity field. To a large extent, the shape of the Earth is the result of its rotation, which"
"cryosphere (corresponding to ice) as a distinct portion of the hydrosphere, as well as the pedosphere (corresponding to soil) as an active and intermixed sphere. Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geographical sciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. There are four major disciplines in earth sciences, namely geography, geology, geophysics and geodesy. These major disciplines use physics, chemistry, biology, chronology and mathematics to build a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the principal areas or ""spheres"" of Earth. The Earth's crust, or lithosphere, is the outermost solid surface of"
"this phenomenon to calculate the Earth's circumference to within of the correct value. The fixed stars can be demonstrated to be very far away, by diurnal parallax measurements (a technique known at least as early as Ancient Greece). Unlike the Sun, Moon, and planets, they do not change position with respect to one another (at least not perceptibly over the span of a human lifetime); the shapes of the constellations are always the same. This makes them a convenient reference background for determining the shape of the Earth. Adding distance measurements on the ground allows calculation of the Earth's size."
"Geometry Geometry (from the ; ""geo-"" ""earth"", ""-metron"" ""measurement"") is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a geometer. Geometry arose independently in a number of early cultures as a practical way for dealing with lengths, areas, and volumes. Geometry began to see elements of formal mathematical science emerging in the West as early as the 6th century BC. By the 3rd century BC, geometry was put into an axiomatic form by Euclid, whose treatment, Euclid's ""Elements"","
"the Earth's sphericity. Those arguments may be summarized as follows: A vital contribution to mapping the reality of the world came with a scientific estimate of the circumference of the earth. This event has been described as the first scientific attempt to give geographical studies a mathematical basis. The man credited for this achievement was Eratosthenes (275–195 BC). As described by George Sarton, historian of science, ""there was among them [Eratosthenes's contemporaries] a man of genius but as he was working in a new field they were too stupid to recognize him"". His work, including ""On the Measurement of the"
"degree or two of average global temperature have historically had major effects on the ecological balance, and on the actual geography of the Earth. Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed. The field is a major academic discipline, and is also important for mineral and hydrocarbon extraction, knowledge about and mitigation of natural hazards, some Geotechnical engineering fields, and understanding past"
"circumference of the Earth by using simple geometry and studying the shadows cast by objects at two remote locations. In the 1st century BC, Posidonius confirmed Eratosthenes's results by comparing stellar observations at two separate locations. These measurements were widely known among scholars, but confusion about the old-fashioned units of distance in which they were expressed led to some debate about the size of the Earth. From d'Ailly's ""Imago Mundi"" Columbus learned of Alfraganus's estimate that a degree of latitude (or a degree of longitude along the equator) spanned 56 miles, but did not realize that this was expressed in"
"Earth's circumference Earth's circumference is the distance around the Earth, either around the equator () or around the poles (). Measurement of Earth's circumference has been important to navigation since ancient times. It was first calculated by Eratosthenes, which he did by comparing altitudes of the mid-day sun at two places a known North-South distance apart. In the Middle Ages, Al Biruni calculated a more accurate version, becoming the first person to perform the calculation based on data from a single location. In modern times it has been used to define fundamental units of measurement of length – the nautical"
"and interactions with the environment by studying their relations with and across space and place. Physical geography deals with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere. The four historical traditions in geographical research are: spatial analyses of natural and the human phenomena, area studies of places and regions, studies of human-land relationships, and the Earth sciences. Geography has been called ""the world discipline"" and ""the bridge between the human and the physical sciences"". Geography is a systematic study of the Universe and its features. Traditionally, geography has been associated with"
"a world with a growing population, possible future water crisis, increasing per capita food consumption, and land degradation. Soil occupies the pedosphere, one of Earth's spheres that the geosciences use to organize the Earth conceptually. This is the conceptual perspective of pedology and edaphology, the two main branches of soil science. Pedology is the study of soil in its natural setting. Edaphology is the study of soil in relation to soil-dependent uses. Both branches apply a combination of soil physics, soil chemistry, and soil biology. Due to the numerous interactions between the biosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere that are hosted within"
"is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them. In terms of analogue sites, scientists search for locations on Earth that exhibit similar landforms such as can be found on exploration targets like the Moon, Mars or even asteroids and comets. The idea is to confront astronauts, robots or scientific equipment with sites that resemble in their geologic appearance those extraterrestrial surfaces. Examples are volcanic sites which resemble lunar terrain (regolith), polar locations and glaciers that can be compared to the poles of Mars or of Jupiter moon Europa, or terrestrial lava tubes which can also be"
"and growth of various geoscience departments at many universities. These developments benefited many civilian pursuits as well, such as weather and communication satellite control and GPS location-finding, which would be impossible without highly accurate models for the figure of the Earth. The models for the figure of the Earth vary in the way they are used, in their complexity, and in the accuracy with which they represent the size and shape of the Earth. The simplest model for the shape of the entire Earth is a sphere. The Earth's radius is the distance from Earth's center to its surface, about"
"Earth sciences. The formal discipline of Earth sciences may include the study of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, oceans and biosphere, as well as the solid earth. Typically Earth scientists will use tools from physics, chemistry, biology, geography, chronology and mathematics to build a quantitative understanding of how the Earth system works, and how it evolved to its current state. Ecology (from Greek: οἶκος, ""house""; -λογία, ""study of"") is the scientific study of the relationships that living organisms have with each other and with their abiotic environment. Topics of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount (biomass), number, and changing states"