Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Earth radius (denoted as R 🜨 or R E) is the distance from the center of Earth to a point on or near its surface. Approximating the figure of Earth by an Earth spheroid (an oblate ellipsoid), the radius ranges from a maximum (equatorial radius, denoted a) of nearly 6,378 km (3,963 mi) to a minimum (polar radius, denoted b) of nearly 6,357 km (3,950 mi).
The Earth's radius is the distance from Earth's center to its surface, about 6,371 km (3,959 mi). While "radius" normally is a characteristic of perfect spheres, the Earth deviates from spherical by only a third of a percent, sufficiently close to treat it as a sphere in many contexts and justifying the term "the radius of the Earth".
As one degree is 1 / 360 of a circle, one minute of arc is 1 / 21600 of a circle – such that the polar circumference of the Earth would be exactly 21,600 miles. Gunter used Snellius's circumference to define a nautical mile as 6,080 feet, the length of one minute of arc at 48 degrees latitude.
[87] [88] Earth's shape also has local topographic variations; the largest local variations, like the Mariana Trench (10,925 metres or 35,843 feet below local sea level), [89] shortens Earth's average radius by 0.17% and Mount Everest (8,848 metres or 29,029 feet above local sea level) lengthens it by 0.14%.
When calculating the length of a short north-south line at the equator, the circle that best approximates that line has a radius of (which equals the meridian's semi-latus rectum), or 6335.439 km, while the spheroid at the poles is best approximated by a sphere of radius , or 6399.594 km, a 1% difference. So long as a spherical Earth is assumed ...
A Valeriepieris circle [1] [2] [3] is a figure drawn on the Earth's surface such that the majority of the human population lives within its interior. The concept was originally popularized by a map posted on Reddit in 2013, made by a Texas ESL teacher named Ken Myers, whose username on the site gave the figure its name. [ 4 ]
Thus, the angular diameter of Earth's orbit around the Sun as viewed from a distance of 1 pc is 2″, as 1 AU is the mean radius of Earth's orbit. The angular diameter of the Sun, from a distance of one light-year, is 0.03″, and that of Earth 0.0003″. The angular diameter 0.03″ of the Sun given above is approximately the same as that of a ...
With straightedge and compass, a diameter of a given circle can be constructed as the perpendicular bisector of an arbitrary chord. Drawing two diameters in this way can be used to locate the center of a circle, as their crossing point. [2] To construct a diameter parallel to a given line, choose the chord to be perpendicular to the line.