^98 Mr Harvey on the Method (^Minimum Squares* 
and by expressing L'— L in degrees, we shall have 
S = D(L'— L) — |«D . 152 sin (L'— L) cos (L'+L) ; 
TT 
from which results 
" J-* — L) cos (L +L). 
As the 45th degree is about 28500 modules of two toises each, 
1 l4-S 
we may make ^ ^ fraction, and 
we shall have 
= sw +‘ • » +• ™ 
an equation which will furnish the relation between « and S for 
every arc whose length is given, and the latitude of whose- ex- 
tremities are known. 
In the following table is presented the lengths of the different 
arcs of the meridian of France, and the latitudes of the parallels 
which separate them, such as they result from the operations 
performed by the celebrated astronomers Delambre and Me- 
CHAIN. 
Place of observa- 
tion. 
Its latitude. 
Arcs of the Meri- 
dian expressed in 
modules. 
L'~L 
L'-fL 
Dunkirk - - - 
Pantheon at Paris 
Evaux - - - 
Carcassonne - - 
Mountjouy - - 
51 2 10.50 
48 50 49.75 
46 10 42.50 
43 12 54.40 
41 21 44.80 
DP 62472.59 
PE 76145.74 
EC 84424.55 
CM 52749.48 
0 ! H 
2 11 20.75 
2 40 7.25 
2 57 48.10 
1 51 9.60 
o / // 
99 53 0 
95 1 32 
89 23 37 
84 34 39 
We have therefore four arcs, whose measures being substi- 
tuted successively in the equations (a), will furnish four equa- 
tions between « and But as these four equations cannot be 
satisfied all at once, we shall suppose that they exist, by attri- 
buting a certain error to the latitude of each place ; and for that 
purpose assume E^, &c. as the additive corrections necessary 
to be made to the latitudes of Dunkirk, the Pantheon, &c. 
These errors entering only into the first member of Oach equa- 
tion, are too smalt to affect the term multiplied by ec in the se- 
cond member. The following therefore are the equations result- 
