>From the archives of the Boring Amateur Radio Society:
"FLASH, the Earth is not round, or really it is not a sphere. It is best
described as an ellipsoid, a shape that, for the Earth, can be
characterized by an equatorial radius, a polar radius, and a "flattening"
factor. Most people (flat-Earth types excluded...) agree on the overall
shape, but don't agree on the values. There are at least 10 different
"official" ellipsoids in use by different groups for different parts of the
world. For example, Russia uses a different one from Australia or Great
Britain, and DoD uses a different one than the one accepted for all of
North America."
"When someone makes a map using a map projection or calculates distances
from lats and lons, they have to use one of these ellipsoid."
"Does this affect the distances calculated in the Stu Perry contest?
Definitely, maybe..."
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