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Old 17th July 2007 | 16:41
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Mad (Flt) Scientist
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Joined: Sep 2002
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From: La Belle Province
maximum difference occurs at 45 deg lat where it is approx 11.4 deg.
That seems a huge discrepancy; surely the earth isn't that far from spherical?

edit: yes, it's way off.
At sea level, the relation ship between geocentric latitude C and geodetic D is:

C = arctan ( (1-F)^2 * tan D)

where F is the "flattening", which for earth is 1/298 approx

That means that the following are some examples:

D=0 -> C=0
D=30 -> C=29.83
D=45 -> C=44.81
D=60 -> C=59.83
D=90 -> C=90

So the difference 45 deg geodetic is 0.19 degrees - which is 11.4 MINUTES approx, not degrees.

Last edited by Mad (Flt) Scientist; 17th July 2007 at 16:53.
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