52 OUTLINES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



position des Operations faites en Lapponie, fyc. par 

 SWANBERG. Stockholm, 1805. 



k. Of all these degrees, it may be said, that an error 

 of 30 toises in the length, or 2" in the amplitude 

 of the arch, is more than can be reasonably sup- 

 posed. If the hypothesis of an elliptic meridian 

 agree with them nearer than this quantity, it must 

 be considered as having the support of observa- 

 tion. But if it is found that these arches cannot 

 be reconciled with the elliptic hypothesis, without 

 supposing greater errors than those just mention- 

 ed, that hypothesis must be either rejected, or re- 

 garded as doubtful. 



60. The five degrees in the last article, coin- 

 cide in giving very nearly the same compression 

 to the earth at the poles, and may all be repre- 

 sented by the same equation, to an exactness 

 much within the limits that have been assigned 

 ( 59. A.) 



a. By combining the degrees in the seven ways men- 

 tioned, it will be found, that is between .003 1 5 



'Jo>: a 



aril r; and .00325. 



b. The mean between these, or .0032, it that which, 

 on the whole, seems the nearest to the truth. It 

 makes the sum of all the errors in the five degrees 

 amountonly to21 toises, taking them with the same 

 sign. Taking them with their proper signs, they 



nearly 



