Two levels of abstraction are employed in the definitions of latitude and longitude. In the first step the physical surface is … 展开

The graticule is formed by the lines of constant latitude and constant longitude, which are constructed with reference to the rotation axis of the Earth. The primary reference points are the poles where the axis of rotation o… 展开

In 1687 Isaac Newton published the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in which he proved that a rotating self-gravitating fluid body in equilibrium takes the form of an oblate ellipsoid. (This ar… 展开

The length of a degree of latitude depends on the figure of the Earth assumed.
On the sphere the normal passes through the centre and the latitude (ϕ) is therefore equal to the angle subtended at the centre by the meridian … 展开

There are six auxiliary latitudes that have applications to special problems in geodesy, geophysics and the theory of map projections:
• Geocentric latitude
• Parametric (or reduced) latitude… 展开

The geodetic latitude, or any of the auxiliary latitudes defined on the reference ellipsoid, constitutes with longitude a two-dimensional coordinate system on that ellipsoid. To define the position of an arbitrary point it i… 展开