Compression (astronomy)
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Compression, in astronomy is the deviation of a heavenly body from the spherical form, called also the ellipticity. It is numerically expressed by the ratio of the differences of the axes to the major axis of the spheroid. The compression or "flattening" of the earth is about 1/298, which means that the ratio of the equatorial to the polar axis is 298:297
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[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
