Word: ellipsoid
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...reciprocal balance of segments of the earth. By investigations made in 1909 and 1910, he determined that the diameter of the earth at the equator is 7,926,678 miles and 7,889,964 miles through the poles. This establishes that the earth is not a sphere but an ellipsoid, slightly flattened at the poles. The Hayford figures have now been adopted as the "ellipsoid of reference," and the geodetic authorities of all the nations will use them to coordinate their work. Director Hayford was, at the time of this decision, seriously ill at his home in Evanston...