A degree of latitude is 1% longer at the poles than at the equator.
The point of the two expeditions was to decide whether the Cassinis were right, that Earth’s north-pole-to-south-pole distance was greater than its equatorial diameter. Wonder why they thought that.
Correct.
I know you know this, but to clarify: a coordinate system is not a projection. I wouldn’t even call it a “map projection system,’ as that Wikipedia author did. It’s a coordinate system.
(The UTM coordinate system happens to use a particular projection, used in a particular way, while at least one coordinate system – the well-known latitude-longitude one – doesn’t use a projection at all; some call it a “geographic” coordinate system, as opposed to UTM’s “projected” one).
Yes, but it is just off the islets of Langerhans.
At 2nd and H Street Northeast, to be precise. I read that story too. Or tried to.