Columbia/colombia100
Previous | Home | NextThe line of the thirteen famous explorers on the "Avenida de los Geodésicos" (Avenue of the Geodesics) at the Mitad del Mundo ("Middle of the World") at Pichincha, Ecuador, 35 km north of Quito, Ecuador, who were commissioned by the French Academy to explore the shape of the earth. (Geodesy is the science of the size and shape of the earth. This science is particularly important today in the age of GPS technology, where the precise shape of the earth, with all of its bulges and curves, is critically important in the precise measurement of geographic locations). The task of de Ulloa and his colleagues was to measure a degree of the meridian at the equator to detect any deviancy from a perfect sphere of the earth. These results would determine who was correct: Newton, who thought the earth was flattened at the terrestial poles, or Descartes, who predicted the earth bulged at the poles (Newton won the bet). The view is northwestward. Mitad del Mundo is a park commemorating these astronomical measurements made by de Ulloa and the other twelve colleagues in 1736. Modern measurements with GPS technology show the defined geographical location was only 240 meters south of the true equator. The park holds a museum, planetarium, other statues, monuments, and other usual tourist attractions. The first statue to the left is of de Ulloa, the "discoverer of platinum" (see next photo). Courtesy, Martin Zeise, under GNU License.
