Figuring out Earth's true shape in the 1800's- The Great Trigonometric Survey
14We have known since the time of the Greeks that the Earth was round, but figuring out its exact shape took much longer. It turns out the distance from pole-to-pole is a bit less than the distance around the equator. In the 1800s we had accurate enough measurements of the globe to know the true shape of the planet. How did we do that before satellites and computers? Also, how did we figure out the height of the Great Himalayan mountains, like Mount Everest and K2. Let's talk!
Images from Wikipedia, the Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset (MCADD) http://pahar.in/, Earth Studio, NASA, and other open sourced imagery.
For more information on what I am doing, see http://www.whereisroadster.com/ To help support this and future efforts see https://www.patreon.com/whereisroadster/. To check out my store, see http://www.cafepress.com/whereisroadster/. To watch some non-space related gaming, follow me on Twitch, https://www.twitch.tv/roadstertracker/ . To talk with me anytime about Mars, Space Exploration, or my upcoming videos, join my Discord at https://discord.gg/CPpSwKc