Geodetic Datum - Motivating Theory

Motivating Theory

The earth is not an ellipsoid. This can be shown by differentiating the equation for an ellipsoid and solving for dy/dx. It is a constant multiplied by x/y. Then derive the force equation from the centrifugal force acting on an object on the earth's surface and the gravitational force. Switch the x and y components and multiply one of them by −1. This is the differential equation which when solved will yield the equation for the earth's surface. This is not a constant multiplied by x/y. Note that the earth's surface is also not an equal-potential surface, as can be verified by calculating the potential at the equator and the potential at a pole. The earth is an equal force surface. A one-kilogram frictionless object on the ideal earth's surface does not have any force acting upon it to cause it to move either north or south. There is no simple analytical solution to this differential equation.

The USGS uses a spherical harmonic expansion to approximate the earth's surface. It has about one hundred thousand terms.

Read more about this topic:  Geodetic Datum

Famous quotes containing the words motivating and/or theory:

    Decisive inventions and discoveries always are initiated by an intellectual or moral stimulus as their actual motivating force, but, usually, the final impetus to human action is given by material impulses ... merchants stood as a driving force behind the heroes of the age of discovery; this first heroic impulse to conquer the world emanated from very mortal forces—in the beginning, there was spice.
    Stefan Zweig (18811942)

    ... liberal intellectuals ... tend to have a classical theory of politics, in which the state has a monopoly of power; hoping that those in positions of authority may prove to be enlightened men, wielding power justly, they are natural, if cautious, allies of the “establishment.”
    Susan Sontag (b. 1933)