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  3. An Account of Experiments to Determine the Figure of the Earth by Means of the Pendulum Vibrating Seconds in Different Latitudes
  • Cited by 1
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2014
Print publication year:
2014
First published in:
1825
Online ISBN:
9781139839372
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139839372
Subjects:
History of Science, Engineering: General Interest, General Science
Series:
Cambridge Library Collection - Physical Sciences
Information

Book description

As early as the seventeenth century, scientists realised that a pendulum swings more slowly at the equator than it would at the North Pole. Newton predicted that gravity increased with latitude, and that the Earth could not be perfectly spherical. Although various experiments were undertaken to determine the exact degree of this ellipticity, none proved successful until physicist Edward Sabine (1788–1883) embarked on a series of expeditions across the world. Based on pendulum measurements from a wide range of latitudes, from Jamaica to Spitsbergen, his results were very different to mathematical predictions, and far more accurate; Charles Babbage would even complain that they were too good to be true. In this account, which first appeared in 1825, Sabine explains his methodology and presents his findings. His book opens a fascinating window into nineteenth-century geodesy for students in the history of science.

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