IF YOU o select t convivial scientific field trip of all time, you could certainlydo ion of 1735. Led by a named Pierre Bouguer and a soldier-matician named C y of scientists and adventurers o Peru riangulating distances the Andes.

    At time people ely become infected o understand to determine  y’s goal o tle tion of t by measuring tance aroundt) along a line reaco, to just beyond Cuenca in ance of about two hundred miles.

    1Almost at once to go imes spectacularly so. In Quito, torssome of toones. Soonafter, tion’s doctor anding over a anist became deranged. Ot senior member ofty, a man named Pierre Godin, ran off een-year-old girl and could not beinduced to return.

    At one point to suspend o sort out a problem s. Eventually opped speakingand refused to ogety  it   suspicions from officials  to believe t a group of Frencists ravel o measure t made no sense atall. ter it still seems a reasonable question.  ts in France and save t of ture?

    tly  t eigury scientists, ticular,seldom did ternative ly ical problem t  arisen ronomer Edmond o South America,much less had a reason for doing so.

    * triangulation, tecric fact t if you knoriangle and t all its otleaving your c you and I decided o triangulation, t t do is put some distance bets say for argumentt you stay in Paris and I go to Mosco t time. Noing t is, you and I and t forms a triangle. Measuret can be simplycalculated. (Because terior angles of a triangle alo 180 degrees, if you knoantly calc