Drafted by James Madison, and presented by Edmund Randolph to the Constitutional Convention on May 29, 1787, the Virginia Plan proposed a strong central government composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. On May 29, 1787, Virginia delegate Edmund Randolph proposed what became known as The Virginia Plan.. Written primarily by fellow Virginian James Madison, the plan traced the broad outlines of what would become the U.S. Constitution: a national government consisting of three branches with checks and balances to prevent the abuse of power.
The Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820 km, which yielded the first accurate measurement of a meridian.he new flattening estimate was one part in 298.257 222 101 and the equatorial radius was 6,378,136.8 metres. An earlier survey, in 1740, had given flattening at one part in 178 and an equatorial radius of 6,396,800 metres.
a remote sensing technique that uses equipment mounted on aircraft or satellites to measure infrared thermal radiation given off by the ground; sensitive to differences as small as .1 centigrade, it can locate subsurface structures by tracking how they affect surface thermal radiation