French Geodetic and Scientific Expedition to Lapland

Abstract

The paper describes surveying a part of the meridian arc in Lapland (border of Sweden and Finland). The field team had great difficulty with the climate and terrain configuration. However, they managed to prove that the Earth is roughly shaped as a rotational ellipsoid and confirm theoretical assumptions on Newton and Huygens that the arc length of one meridian degree near a pole is greater than at smaller latitudes.

Keywords

• triangulation chain
• length of baseline
• astronomic observations
• difference in latitudes
• zenith sector
• quadrant
• length of meridian arc degree
• Lapland
• rotational ellipsoid