The Schiehallion experiment was an 18th-century experiment to determine the mean density of the Earth. Funded by a grant from the Royal Society, it was conducted in the summer of 1774 around the Scottish mountain of Schiehallion, Perthshire. The experiment involved measuring the tiny deflection of the vertical due to the gravitational attraction of a nearby mountain. Schiehallion was considered the ideal location after a search for candidate mountains, thanks to its isolation and almost symmetrical shape.
The experiment had previously been considered, but rejected, by Isaac Newton as a practical demonstration of his theory of gravitation; however, a team of scientists, notably Nevil Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, was convinced that the effect would be detectable and undertook to conduct the experiment. The deflection angle depended on the relative densities and volumes of the Earth and the mountain: if the density and volume of Schiehallion could be ascertained, then so could the density of the Earth. Once this was known, it would in turn yield approximate values for those of the other planets, their moons, and the Sun, previously known only in terms of their relative ratios.
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56.66778°N 4.09778°W / 56.66778; -4.09778 The Schiehallionexperiment was an 18th-century experiment to determine the mean density of the Earth. Funded...
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Pierre Bouguer in 1740, then definitively by Charles Hutton in his Schiehallionexperiment around 1774. It was still occasionally defended through the mid-19th...
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theoretically by Ducarla in 1771, and Charles Hutton used them in the Schiehallionexperiment. In 1791, a map of France by J. L. Dupain-Triel used contour lines...
Croisic; see Works by Jean Fréour. List of geophysicists Radiodrome Schiehallionexperiment "August 15, 1758: Death of Pierre Bouguer". APS News. American...
Australis. 1775 – Charles Hutton, based on his analysis of the Schiehallionexperiment, shows the Earth has a density of at least 4,500 kg·m−3 and suggests...
Earth: Nevil Maskelyne conducted the Schiehallionexperiment conducted at the Scottish mountain of Schiehallion, Perthshire 1774 The first isolation of...
Royal, at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and was involved in the Schiehallionexperiment. He later conducted research in India, teaching himself Sanskrit...
in Japan, the first modern anatomy textbook produced there. The Schiehallionexperiment is carried out by Nevil Maskelyne to determine the mean density...
acquaintance he had first made in the course of the celebrated Schiehallionexperiments in 1774, he also gained access to the scientific circles of London...
1774, Maskelyne was confirming Newton's theory of gravitation at and on Schiehallion mountain in Scotland, and he needed to measure elevations on the mountain's...
on the site that will become St Peter's Church, Aberdeen. The Schiehallionexperiment is carried by Nevil Maskelyne out to determine the mean density...
mass of the Earth in a ground-breaking experiment carried out in 1774. Following Maskelyne's survey, Schiehallion became the first mountain to be mapped...
Maskelyne, N. (1775). "An Account of Observations Made on the Mountain Schiehallion for Finding Its Attraction". Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. 65 (0): 500–542...
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for a repetition of the pendulum experiments previously conducted by Nevil Maskelyne and John Playfair at Schiehallion, and on the deviations of the plumb-line...