Essay On The Earth

The earth is spherical in nature. The earth also rotates on its own axis. The other thing about the shape earth is that it is an oblate spheroid. This means that the earth’s surface is not perfectly symmetrical. In order to have a clear definition of the different locations in the earth, it is divided into different horizontal and vertical lines. These are the lines that help us to have a clear location of a place. The horizontal lines are called the latitudes and the vertical lines are called the longitudes. These are the angles that uniquely define a point on a sphere. The latitudes are defined with respect to equatorial reference plane that is referred to as the equator. On the other hand, the longitudes are defined in terms of meridians. The longitudes are defined with respect to the prime meridian that passes through Greenwich in England. It depicted that the more u more you to the west of the prime meridian the more the time is ahead and on the other hand the more one moves to the east the more one gets behind time. Both the equator and the prime meridian represent zero degrees. The prime meridian signifies +180 degrees to the west and -180 degrees to the east.
The other issue is why we need different spheroids. This is because different spheroids in the earth are used throughout the world to account for different deviations. This is the reason as to why the scholars have used different spheroids when defining the earth. The other thing is that because of improvement in technology, refinement in measurements different spheroids has been used to represent the geographical area. In order to locate a place in the earth’s spheroid the following procedure is used: the first step is to download the data. The second step is to open the map document. The third step is to skyrocket the area of interest. This is because many spheroids use very small scale due to the content of the data. The fourth step is to display a more detailed layer. This lets one see differences between different spheroids. The fifth step is to compare the spheroids. This step allows one to wipe a layer’s visibility on and off. The sixth step is to zoom in closer in order take a closer look of the detailed feature shapes. The other step is measure the differences in meters. The above procedure will allow one to establish the location of different places and have a better understanding of the earth’s shape.
The other point that was noteworthy is the location of features from north to south. It is estimated that the ancient Greeks used two different latitude lines as their origin. The two line, one line passed through Rhodes and the other one through Alexandria. These lines are the actually the edges of a series of parallel planes intersecting the earth’s axis at right angles and they decrease in size as they approach the poles. The latitude that signifies zero degrees is called the equator and it separates the earth into two hemispheres. These hemispheres comprise the north and the south hemispheres. It is estimated that theoretically the spheres are equal but in the real sense since the earth is not a perfect sphere, it is depicted that there may be some variations. The seminar was worth attendance since I cannot just define the earth as round but like a layman person, I now have a better understanding.