Maupertuis Meridian Arc Expedition
- When
- 1736
- Where
- Lapland
- Episodes
- 1
In 1736, Pierre Louis Maupertuis led a French Geodesic Mission to Lapland to measure a meridian arc and determine Earth's shape. The expedition, supported by King Louis XV and including Anders Celsius, was part of a broader Academy effort to resolve geodetic questions.
Episodes
Background and detail
Mission Mandate. The French Academy of Sciences initiated expeditions in 1735 to resolve the shape of the Earth. Maupertuis was appointed chief of the mission sent by King Louis XV to Lapland in 1736 to measure the length of a degree of meridian arc.
Scientific Context. Meridian arcs are curves between points of the same longitude. Determining their length through field campaigns was a long-standing geodetic pursuit. This expedition aimed to gather empirical data to support theoretical calculations regarding the Earth's geometry.
People involved
- Pierre Louis Maupertuis · Chief of the French Geodesic Mission
- Anders Celsius · Expedition Member
Sources
- Pierre Louis Maupertuis Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-02
- Meridian arc Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-26
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.