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French Geodesic Mission To The Equator
The French Geodesic Mission to the Equator (), also called the French Geodesic Mission to Peru and the Spanish-French Geodesic Mission, was an 18th-century expedition to what is now Ecuador carried out for the purpose of performing an arc measurement, measuring the length of a degree of latitude near the Equator, by which the Earth's radius can be inferred. The mission was one of the first geodesic (or ''geodetic'') missions carried out under modern scientific principles, and the first major international scientific expedition. Background In the 18th century, there was significant debate in the scientific community, specifically in the French Academy of Sciences (''Académie des sciences''), as to whether the circumference of the Earth was greater around the Equator or around the poles. French astronomer Jacques Cassini held to the view that the polar circumference was greater. Louis XV of France and the academy sent two expeditions to determine the answer: a northern ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contains the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, about west of the mainland. The country's Capital city, capital is Quito and its largest city is Guayaquil. The land that comprises modern-day Ecuador was once home to several groups of Indigenous peoples in Ecuador, indigenous peoples that were gradually incorporated into the Inca Empire during the 15th century. The territory was Spanish colonization of the Americas, colonized by the Spanish Empire during the 16th century, achieving independence in 1820 as part of Gran Colombia, from which it emerged as a sovereign state in 1830. The legacy of both empires is reflected in Ecuador's ethnically diverse population, with most of its million people being mestizos, followed by large minorities of Europe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equator
The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumference, halfway between the North Pole, North and South Pole, South poles. The term can also be used for any other celestial body that is roughly spherical. In three-dimensional space, spatial (3D) geometry, as applied in astronomy, the equator of a rotating spheroid (such as a planet) is the parallel (circle of latitude) at which latitude is defined to be 0°. It is an imaginary line on the spheroid, equidistant from its geographical pole, poles, dividing it into northern and southern hemispheres. In other words, it is the intersection of the spheroid with the plane (geometry), plane perpendicular to its axis of rotation and midway between its geographical poles. On and near the equator (on Earth), noontime sunlight appears almost directly o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quito
Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, Pichincha. Quito is in a valley on the eastern slopes of Pichincha (volcano), Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes. Quito's elevation of makes it either the List of capital cities by altitude, highest or the second highest national capital city in the world. This varied standing is because Bolivia is a List of countries with multiple capitals, country with multiple capitals; if La Paz is considered the Bolivian national capital, it tops the list of highest capitals, but if Sucre is specified as the capital, then it is the second highest, behind Quito. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa, various islands in Asia and Oceania, as well as territory in other parts of Europe. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, becoming known as "the empire on which the sun never sets". At its greatest extent in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Spanish Empire covered , making it one of the List of largest empires, largest empires in history. Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus and continuing for over three centuries, the Spanish Empire would expand across the Caribbean Islands, half of South America, most of Central America and much of North America. In the beginning, Portugal was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pedro Vicente Maldonado
Pedro Vicente Maldonado y Flores (November 24, 1704 in Riobamba, Royal Audience of Quito (today's Ecuador) – November 7, 1748 in London, England) was an Ecuadorian scientist who collaborated with the members of the French Geodesic Mission. As well as a physicist and a mathematician, Maldonado was an astronomer, topographer, and geographer. Biography Maldonado’s parents were Don Pedro Antonio Maldonado Sotomayor and Doña María Flores Palomino, both of whom were of high economic and social standing, they came from one of the most important families of the country. His genealogy belongs to one of the first and most important marquis in Ecuador's history. He completed his primary education in Riobamba, the city of his birth, and in 1718, traveled to Quito where he attended the Colegio San Luis, where, under the supervision of the Jesuits, he learned arithmetic, geometry, Latin, astronomy, and music. On May 19, 1721, he received his teaching degree from the Gregorian Universit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topography
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary science and is concerned with local detail in general, including not only relief, but also natural, artificial, and cultural features such as roads, land boundaries, and buildings. In the United States, topography often means specifically relief, even though the USGS topographic maps record not just elevation contours, but also roads, populated places, structures, land boundaries, and so on. Topography in a narrow sense involves the recording of relief or terrain, the three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the identification of specific landforms; this is also known as geomorphometry. In modern usage, this involves generation of elevation data in digital form ( DEM). It is often considered to include the graphic representation of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Godin Des Odonais
Jean Godin des Odonais (5 July 1713 Saint-Amand-Montrond, France - 1 March 1792 Paris) was a French cartographer and naturalist. Biography Godin des Odonais had joined the world's first geodesy expedition to the equator, led by Charles Marie de La Condamine. He had been recommended to La Condamine by the expedition's chief astronomer, his cousin Louis Godin. To be distinguished from his relative, Jean added to his surname that of his mother, Odonais. When the commission returned to France, Godin des Odonais became professor of astronomy and natural science at the College of Quito, 1739. At the same time he studied the Indian languages and the flora of Ecuador. His marriage with an heiress, Isabel Gramesón, gave him the means, and in 1743 he resigned his chair and gave his whole time to natural science and the Indian language. He explored Ecuador and the northern provinces of Peru, and collected an herbarium containing more than 4,000 species of plants. He also made drawing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph De Jussieu
Joseph de Jussieu (3 September 1704 – 11 April 1779), was a French botanist and explorer, member of the Jussieu family. He introduced the common garden heliotrope (''Heliotropium arborescens'') to European gardeners. He was born in Lyon, and was the brother of Bernard and Antoine de Jussieu. He accompanied Charles Marie de La Condamine, Louis Godin and Pierre Bouguer on a voyage to South America in 1735, primarily to Ecuador with main aim to make astronomical sightings at the Equator to help establish shape of the Earth. He died in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ..., aged 74. See also * De Jussieu family References 18th-century French botanists Members of the French Academy of Sciences 1704 births 1779 deaths {{France-botanist-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonio De Ulloa
Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Guiral (12 January 1716 – 3 July 1795) was a Spanish Navy officer. He spent much of his career in the Spanish America, Americas, where he carried out important scientific work. As a scientist, Ulloa is regarded as one of the major figures of the Enlightenment in Spain. As a military officer, Ulloa achieved the rank of vice admiral. He also served the Spanish Empire as an administrator in the Viceroyalty of Peru and in Louisiana (New Spain), Spanish Louisiana. At the age of nineteen, Ulloa joined the French Geodesic Mission to the Equator, which established that the shape of the Earth is an Spheroid#Oblate_spheroids, oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles, as predicted by Isaac Newton. The mission took more than eight years to complete its work, during which time Ulloa, in close collaboration with his fellow naval officer Jorge Juan y Santacilia, Jorge Juan, made many astronomical, natural, and social observations in South America. Ullo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jorge Juan Y Santacilia
Jorge Gaspar Juan y Santacilia (Novelda, Province of Alicante, Alicante, 5 January 1713 – Madrid, 21 June 1773) was a Spanish mariner, mathematician, natural scientist, astronomer, engineer, and educator. He is generally regarded as one of the most important scientific figures of the Enlightenment in Spain. As a military officer, he undertook sensitive diplomatic missions for the Spanish crown and contributed to the modernization and professionalization of the Spanish Navy. In his lifetime, he came to be known as ''el sabio español'' ("the Spanish savant"). His career as a public servant constitutes an important chapter in the Bourbon Reforms of the 18th century. As a young naval lieutenant, Juan participated in the French Geodesic Mission to the Equator of 1735–1744, which established definitively that the shape of the Earth is an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles, as predicted in Isaac Newton's ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Principia''. With h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
