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Specifying the boundary conditions.

Constraint 1 given in section 1.7 can be stated as...
equation834

Putting constraint 2 of section 1.7 into mathematics gave me some severe headaches. This constraint states that the Y value on the central meridian is the length of arc from the equator to the point on the earth. As a mathematician I automatically took the following approach...
equation836

Where ds is the differential arc segment and C is the arc line. Using pythagoras's theorem and noting that we are on the central meridian so y is always 0.
equation838

Then parametrizing the arc with t one gets the standard second year calculus result...
equation840

Filling in the values of x and z from the parametric equations of the spheroid one gets...
equation842

Or in terms of the eccentricity is...
 equation844




John Carter
Fri Feb 21 14:23:22 SAT 1997