Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of the figure of the Earth to a sphere . The concept of a spherical Earth gradually displaced earlier beliefs in a flat Earth during classical antiquity and the Middle Ages . The figure of the Earth is more accurately described as an ellipsoid , which was realized in the early modern period .
31-585: Download coordinates as: Lucinda is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Hinchinbrook , Queensland , Australia. In the 2021 census , the locality of Lucinda had a population of 435 people. The locality is bounded to the east by the Coral Sea , to the north by the southern end of the Hinchinbrook Channel (which separates Hinchinbrook Island from mainland Queensland), to the west by
62-452: A hotel on Lucinda Point Road. It is also frequently serviced by Ingham and the nearby town of Halifax . Lucinda is serviced 5 days a week by Australia Post. Ingham Coast Guard is a marine rescue facility at the junction of Patterson Parade and Warring Street ( 18°31′48″S 146°20′04″E / 18.5301°S 146.3345°E / -18.5301; 146.3345 ( Ingham Coast Guard ) ). There are two boat ramps managed by
93-409: A non-rotating, gravitationally self-attracting liquid. The outward acceleration caused by Earth's rotation is greater at the equator than at the poles (where is it zero), so the sphere gets deformed into an ellipsoid , which represents the shape having the lowest potential energy for a rotating, fluid body. This ellipsoid is slightly fatter around the equator than a perfect sphere would be. Earth's shape
124-631: A spherical Earth as the center of the universe. The knowledge of the Greeks was inherited by Ancient Rome, and Christian and Islamic realms in the Middle Ages. Circumnavigation of the world in the Age of Discovery provided direct evidence. Improvements in transportation and other technologies refined estimations of the size of the Earth, and helped spread knowledge of it. The earliest documented mention of
155-707: A supply barge to Palm Island . There are no schools in Lucinda. The nearest government primary school is Halifax State School in neighbouring Halifax to the south. The nearest government secondary school is Ingham State High School in Ingham to the south-west. Lucinda is serviced by a convenience store, the Hinchinbrook Marine Cove Resort on the waterfront on Dungeness Road, the Wanderers Village Resort on Bruce Parade and
186-537: Is 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) by road north-west of the town of Lucinda. Dungeness takes its name from Dungeness Creek, which, in turn, was named after headland Dungeness on the coast of Kent , England. Unlike the town of Lucinda, Dungeness faces west onto the Enterprise Channel. Lucinda is located on the traditional lands of the Biyaygiri people. The town was named after Lady Lucinda Musgrave ,
217-407: Is also slightly lumpy because it is composed of different materials of different densities that exert slightly different amounts of gravitational force per volume. The liquidity of a hot, newly formed planet allows heavier elements to sink down to the middle and forces lighter elements closer to the surface, a process known as planetary differentiation . This event is known as the iron catastrophe ;
248-624: Is concerned with measuring parts of the surface. Earth's shape can be thought of in at least two ways: As the science of geodesy measured Earth more accurately, the shape of the geoid was first found not to be a perfect sphere but to approximate an oblate spheroid , a specific type of ellipsoid . More recent measurements have measured the geoid to unprecedented accuracy, revealing mass concentrations beneath Earth's surface. The roughly spherical shape of Earth can be empirically evidenced by many different types of observation , ranging from ground level, flight, or orbit. The spherical shape causes
279-460: Is primarily concerned with positioning and the gravity field and geometrical aspects of their temporal variations, although it can also include the study of Earth's magnetic field . Especially in the German speaking world, geodesy is divided into geomensuration ("Erdmessung" or "höhere Geodäsie"), which is concerned with measuring Earth on a global scale, and surveying ("Ingenieurgeodäsie"), which
310-538: Is split between the City of Newcastle and City of Lake Macquarie LGAs; and Woodville , which is split between the City of Maitland and Port Stephens Council LGAs. In unincorporated areas , localities are declared by the relevant state authority. Curvature of the Earth Earth is massive enough that the pull of gravity maintains its roughly spherical shape. Most of its deviation from spherical stems from
341-507: Is what causes tides in the oceans ' water, which can flow freely along the changing potential. The spherical shape of the Earth was known and measured by astronomers, mathematicians, and navigators from a variety of literate ancient cultures, including the Hellenic World, and Ancient India. Greek ethnographer Megasthenes , c. 300 BC , has been interpreted as stating that the contemporary Brahmans of India believed in
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#1732793692466372-523: The 2016 census , the locality of Lucinda had a population of 406 people. In the 2021 census , the locality of Lucinda had a population of 435 people. A sugar-exporting town, Lucinda is noted for its 5.76-kilometre (3.58 mi) long sugar jetty, which is the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere and the world's largest bulk sugar loading facility ( 18°31′13″S 146°23′11″E / 18.5202°S 146.3863°E / -18.5202; 146.3863 ( Lucinda Jetty ) ). Due to its length,
403-675: The Herbert River which flows in the Seaforth Channel and then into the Hinchinbrook Channel, and to the south by Gentle Annie Creek which flows into the Coral Sea. The cape Lucinda Point is the north-eastern corner of the locality ( 18°31′37″S 146°20′21″E / 18.5269°S 146.3393°E / -18.5269; 146.3393 ( Lucinda Point ) ). The town of Lucinda developed along
434-536: The Hinchinbrook Shire Council : Suburbs and localities (Australia) Suburbs and localities are the names of geographic subdivisions in Australia , used mainly for address purposes. The term locality is used in rural areas, while the term suburb is used in urban areas. Australian postcodes closely align with the boundaries of localities and suburbs. This Australian usage of
465-580: The Northern Territory had not completed this process. The CGNA's Gazetteer of Australia recognises two types of locality: bounded and unbounded. Bounded localities include towns, villages, populated places, local government towns and unpopulated town sites, while unbounded localities include place names, road corners and bends, corners, meteorological stations, ocean place names and surfing spots. Sometimes, both localities and suburbs are referred to collectively as "address localities". In
496-436: The centrifugal force caused by rotation around its north-south axis. This force deforms the sphere into an oblate ellipsoid . The Solar System formed from a dust cloud that was at least partially the remnant of one or more supernovas that produced heavy elements by nucleosynthesis . Grains of matter accreted through electrostatic interaction. As they grew in mass, gravity took over in gathering yet more mass, releasing
527-402: The potential energy of their collisions and in-falling as heat . The protoplanetary disk also had a greater proportion of radioactive elements than Earth today because, over time, those elements decayed . Their decay heated the early Earth even further, and continue to contribute to Earth's internal heat budget . The early Earth was thus mostly liquid. A sphere is the only stable shape for
558-604: The concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Greek philosophers . In the 3rd century BC, Hellenistic astronomy established the roughly spherical shape of Earth as a physical fact and calculated the Earth's circumference . This knowledge was gradually adopted throughout the Old World during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages . A practical demonstration of Earth's sphericity
589-427: The east coast from the point and extending south. The Herbert River ( 18°32′36″S 146°17′23″E / 18.5434°S 146.2898°E / -18.5434; 146.2898 ( Herbert River ) ) flows into the sea in 3 different ways: The town of Dungeness ( 18°31′36″S 146°19′07″E / 18.5267°S 146.3186°E / -18.5267; 146.3186 ( Dungeness (town) ) )
620-478: The energy release from these processes halts, then they tend to erode away over time and return toward the lowest potential-energy curve of the ellipsoid. Weather powered by solar energy can also move water, rock, and soil to make Earth slightly out of round. Earth undulates as the shape of its lowest potential energy changes daily due to the gravity of the Sun and Moon as they move around with respect to Earth. This
651-438: The first instance, decisions about the names and boundaries of suburbs and localities are made by the local council in which they are located based on criteria such as community recognition. Local council decisions are, however, subject to approval by the state's geographical names board. The boundaries of some suburbs and localities overlap two or more local government areas (LGAs). Examples of this are Adamstown Heights , which
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#1732793692466682-461: The jetty could not be built flat but follows the curvature of the Earth creating a difference of 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) between the two ends of the jetty. The jetty can accommodate Panamax-class ships and it takes 22 minutes for the sugar to travel the length of the jetty by conveyor belt. The sugar is supplied from the Victoria and Macnade sugar mills. Lucinda is also used as a port for
713-449: The most abundant heavier elements were iron and nickel , which now form the Earth's core . Though the surface rocks of Earth have cooled enough to solidify, the outer core of the planet is still hot enough to remain liquid. Energy is still being released; volcanic and tectonic activity has pushed rocks into hills and mountains and blown them out of calderas . Meteors also cause impact craters and surrounding ridges. However, if
744-515: The order of 1/300 ( Delambre , Everest ). The modern value as determined by the US DoD World Geodetic System since the 1960s is close to 1/298.25. Geodesy , also called geodetics, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of Earth, its gravitational field and geodynamic phenomena ( polar motion , Earth tides , and crustal motion) in three-dimensional time-varying space. Geodesy
775-608: The past as informal units, but in 1996 the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping and the Committee for Geographical Names in Australasia (CGNA) decided to name and establish official boundaries for all localities and suburbs. There has subsequently been a process to formally define their boundaries and to gazette them, which is almost complete. In March 2006, only South Australia and
806-523: The shape of Earth include a seven-layered ziggurat or cosmic mountain , alluded to in the Avesta and ancient Persian writings (see seven climes ). The realization that the figure of the Earth is more accurately described as an ellipsoid dates to the 17th century, as described by Isaac Newton in Principia . In the early 19th century, the flattening of the earth ellipsoid was determined to be of
837-585: The term "suburb" differs from common American and British usage, where it typically means a smaller, frequently separate residential community outside, but close to, a larger city. The Australian usage is closer to the American or British use of "district" or "neighbourhood", and can be used to refer to any portion of a city. Unlike the use in British or American English, this term can include inner-city, outer-metropolitan and industrial areas. Localities existed in
868-839: The wife of the Governor of Queensland , Sir Anthony Musgrave from 1883 to 1888, or the Queensland Government steam yacht, the Lucinda , that was in turn named after her. In 1896, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company built a tramway from its Victoria sugar mill to Lucinda Point where the Queensland Government contracted the Rooney Brothers of Townsville built a storage shed and jetty. The existing harbour at Dungeness
899-436: Was achieved by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano 's circumnavigation (1519–1522). The concept of a spherical Earth displaced earlier beliefs in a flat Earth : In early Mesopotamian mythology , the world was portrayed as a disk floating in the ocean with a hemispherical sky-dome above, and this forms the premise for early world maps like those of Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus . Other speculations on
930-400: Was mothballed on 4 November 2008 and closed on 31 December 2008. It was at 20 Patterson Parade (corner Waring Street, 18°31′50″S 146°20′02″E / 18.5306°S 146.3339°E / -18.5306; 146.3339 ( Lucinda Point State School (former) ) ). The school's website was archived. In the 2006 census , the town of Lucinda had a population of 448 people. In
961-501: Was not regarded as viable due to its shifting sandbanks. The current jetty was built in 1979. On Thursday 3 February 2011, the jetty suffered severe wave damage during Tropical Cyclone Yasi , but was repaired. Lucinda Post Office opened on 6 October 1896. Dungeness Provisional School opened in 1896. Due to problems with flooding, the school was moved to Lucinda Point in 1897 and in 1898 renamed as Lucinda Point Provisional School. On 1 January 1909, it became Lucinda Point State School. It