Geodetic datum

Imagine you have a big, round ball. When you draw a map of the world, you have to flatten it out to put it on paper. But, there are many different ways to flatten it out, and each one will be a little bit different – like if you take a ball and crush it down in different ways, it won’t look the same.

A geodetic datum is a way to describe how you flattened the Earth to make your map. It’s like a set of instructions for how you squished the ball so that you know where things are on your map.

Geodetic datums are important because they help people know where things are on a map very precisely. For example, if you’re trying to send a rocket into space, you need to know exactly where you’re starting from, and that starts with knowing exactly where you are on the Earth’s surface. Different countries and organizations might use different geodetic datums, and this can cause confusion if you’re trying to share information with someone who is using a different one.

Overall, a geodetic datum is a way of describing how you’ve flattened the Earth to make your map, so that you can know exactly where things are located on the map.