Geodesy (/didsi/), also named geodetics, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth. The history of geodesy began in antiquity and blossomed during the Age of Enlightenment.

Early ideas about the figure of the Earth held the Earth to be flat (see flat Earth), and the heavens a physical dome spanning over it. Two early arguments for a spherical Earth were that lunar eclipses were seen as circular shadows which could only be caused by a spherical Earth, and that Polaris is seen lower in the sky as one travels South.

The early Greeks, in their speculation and theorizing, ranged from the flat disc advocated by Homer to the spherical body postulated by Pythagoras. Pythagoras's idea was supported later by Aristotle. Pythagoras was a mathematician and to him the most perfect figure was a sphere. He reasoned that the gods would create a perfect figure and therefore the Earth was created to be spherical in shape. Anaximenes, an early Greek philosopher, believed strongly that the Earth was rectangular in shape.

Since the spherical shape was the most widely supported during the Greek Era, efforts to determine its size followed. Plato determined the circumference of the Earth (which is slightly over 40,000km) to be 400,000 stadia (between 62,800 and 74,000km or 46,250 and 39,250mi) while Archimedes estimated 300,000 stadia (48,300km or 30,000mi), using the Hellenic stadion which scholars generally take to be 185 meters or of a geographical mile. Plato's figure was a guess and Archimedes' a more conservative approximation.

Answer this series of questions:

1. When did geodesy begin?
2. When did it flourish?
3. Which Greek argued for a flat Earth?
4. Who argued for a perfect sphere?
5. Who later agreed with him?
6. Why did Pythagoras think the Earth was a sphere?
7. Who thought the Earth was rectangular?
8. Who was Anaximenes?
9. How did early ideas describe the heavens?
10. How does the position of Polaris change as one goes South?
11. What measurement did Plato make?
12. What units of measurement did he use?
13. What did he measure the circumference as?
14. What range of km does this convert to?
15. Is that larger than Earth's actual circumference in km?
16. What is the actual value in km?
17. Did Plato and Archimedes arrive at the same measurement?
18. What was Archimedes' estimate?
19. Using what kind of stadia?
20. How did Plato arrive at his estimate?
1. in antiquity
2. during the Age of Enlightenment
3. Homer
4. Pythagoras
5. Aristotle
6. Because the most perfect figure was a sphere.
7. Anaximenes
8. an early Greek philosopher
9. a dome over the earth
10. it's seen lower in the sky
11. the circumference of the Earth
12. stadia
13. 400,000 stadia
14. 62,800 and 74,000
15. yes
16. 40,000
17. no
18. 300,000 stadia
19. the Hellenic stadion
20. a guess