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by pmikesell 2552 days ago
Also at the equator - the earth is not a perfect sphere.
1 comments

No, but it's not oblate enough for the difference to cause any noticeable problems in navigation. The difference between an arc length of a minute at the equator vs a minute on the latitude scale is about 0.2% - less than the margin of error when reading a sextant.
What I mean is, at least in the US it is defined as an arc minute at the equator, not just any great circle.
True; I think that's the global definition anyway.