DETERMINATION OF THE EARTH'S RADIUS USING PROJECTION METHOD FORMULAS,

The paper presents a summary of methods commonly used to determine the earths size and shape and a brief review of the projection method. To illustrate the projection method, a numerical example is given using 12 astrogeodetic stations on the North American Datum 1927, Clarke 1866 Ellipsoid. In the example, the flattening for the new ellipsoid is assumed fixed at 1298.3 as previously determined by Helmert and Krasovskiy. The value of da is determined as - 35.1 m and, by computation from Milan Bursas formulas for determination of a for Europe, the value of da is - 35.3 m. Although the number of stations which are used in the example is too small, it is adequate to demonstrate the projection method for obtaining the equatorial radius. Author