Jean Picard

Jean-Felix Picard (July 21, 1620 – July 12, 1682) was a French astronomer and priest born in La Fleche. He was the first person to measure the size of the Earth to a reasonable degree of accuracy. This was achieved by measuring one degree of latitude along the Paris Meridian using triangulation. His measurements produced a result of between 111 and 112km for one degree of latitude, which gives a corresponding terrestrial radius of 6372km. The polar radius has now been measured at 6357km.