05-29-2023-1319 - Geodesy began in pre-scientific antiquity, so the very word geodesy comes from the Ancient Greek word γεωδαισία or geodaisia (literally, "division of Earth").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Vertical_Datum_of_1988

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_ellipsoid#Reference_ellipsoid

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesy

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoid

History

Main article: History of geodesy

Geodesy began in pre-scientific antiquity, so the very word geodesy comes from the Ancient Greek word γεωδαισία or geodaisia (literally, "division of Earth").

Early ideas about the figure of the Earth held the Earth to be flat and the heavens a physical dome spanning over it. Two early arguments for a spherical Earth were that lunar eclipses appear to an observer as circular shadows and that Polaris appears lower and lower in the sky to a traveler headed South. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesy