triptracker.core
Class Ellipsoid

java.lang.Object
  triptracker.core.Ellipsoid

public class Ellipsoid
extends Object

The Earth is not an exact ellipsoid. In fact, because the Earth is such a "lumpy" ellipsoid no single smooth ellipsoid will provide a perfect reference surface for the entire Earth.

The practical solution to this is to measure the Earth's shape in different areas and to then create different reference ellipsoids used for mapping different regions on Earth.

Different datums is used for flattening out this lumpy ellipsoid. They create an reference ellipsoid used for mapping different regions on earth. The reference ellipsoid is created by the Earth's radius and the Earths eccentricity values. Evidently, this values is different for the each datums.

See Also:

The Earth as an Ellipsoid:

Constructor Summary

Ellipsoid(String name, double radius, double eccentricity)

Method Summary

double	getEccentricity() Returns earths eccentricity value based on the active datum
String	getName() Returns the datum's name
double	getRadius() Returns earths radius value based on the active datum
String	toString()

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

Ellipsoid

public Ellipsoid(String name,
                 double radius,
                 double eccentricity)

Method Detail

toString

public String toString()

Overrides:

toString in class Object

getEccentricity

public double getEccentricity()

Returns earths eccentricity value based on the active datum

Returns:

eccentricity value based on the datum

getName

public String getName()

Returns the datum's name

Returns:

name of the datum

getRadius

public double getRadius()

Returns earths radius value based on the active datum

Returns:

radius value based on the datum