These results show that in the later method the personal equation is
small and not so variable; and consequently the repetition of
longitude determinations with exchanged observers and apparatus
entirely eliminates the constant errors, the probable error of such
determinations on ten nights being scarcely [+-]0^s.01.
_Calculation of Triangulation._
The surface of Great Britain and Ireland is uniformly covered by
triangulation, of which the sides are of various lengths from 10 to
111 miles. The largest triangle has one angle at Snowdon in Wales,
another on Slieve Donard in Ireland, and a third at Scaw Fell in
Cumberland; each side is over a hundred miles and the spherical excess
is 64". The more ordinary method of triangulation is, however, that of
chains of triangles, in the direction of the meridian and
perpendicular thereto. The principal triangulations of France, Spain,
Austria and India are so arranged. Oblique chains of triangles are
formed in Italy, Sweden and Norway, also in Germany and Russia, and in
the United States. Chains are composed sometimes merely of consecutive
plain triangles; sometimes, and more frequently in India, of
combinations of triangles forming consecutive polygonal figures. In
this method of triangulating, the sides of the triangles are generally
from 20 to 30 miles in length--seldom exceeding 40.
The inevitable errors of observation, which are inseparable from all
angular as well as other measurements, introduce a great difficulty
into the calculation of the sides of a triangulation. Starting from a
given base in order to get a required distance, it may generally be
obtained in several different ways--that is, by using different sets
of triangles. The results will certainly differ one from another, and
probably no two will agree. The experience of the computer will then
come to his aid, and enable him to say which is the most trustworthy
result; but no experience or ability will carry him through a large
network of triangles with anything like assurance. The only way to
obtain trustworthy results is to employ the method of least squares.
We cannot here give any illustration of this method as applied to
general triangulation, for it is most laborious, even for the simplest
cases.
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