Quote:
Originally Posted by spiteface
I should add, it refers to an ostrich egg I believe.
|
Apparently an ostrich egg will average 15 centimeters long and 13 centimeters wide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_Egg#Reproduction
This gives an relative flattening of ~13%.
The World Geodetic System reference ellipsoid (the 1984 version of which is used by GPS) has a relative flattening of ~0.335%. That's a pretty big difference depending on which standard you're holding the ostrich egg comparison up to.
If an ostrich egg is what you're comparing the shape of the earth to, it would be much more accurate to just call it a sphere.