Defitely spheroid. We use that terms when making maps. For the original poster: it would be good to have a complete information release every so often. If 20 years has passed, then we should be allowed to read the report. If there is a secret that is so important that it can't be read after 20 years, then it shouldn't have been one in the first place.\ or, wait long enough so that no one is alive that would get pissed off when you tell them what happened, but we gotta know eventually or we are really just dummies.
I thought maps were flat? Good thing the kid only had "need to know" stuff......after all, if he'd "known too much", well. In a well, that is.
Some maps are flat, but what about a globe? what a foolio. Plus the projection of a round 3d surface can be laid to a 2d plane with some precision around certain areas and some error around others. Additionally, an assumption is made as to the shape of the 3d surface (spheroid) as some averaging must be assumed to guage the 3d surface function given the completely irregular shape of the world. If we didn't have land on the earth surface the error would be less as the spheroid would be easier to describe mathematically.
Hmm, i see what your saying. I'll fit a globe navigation system to my car immediately, and throw out the garmin Better than fluffy dice, after all.