Charles Marie de La Condamine was a human.
Charles Marie de La Condamine ( 28 January 1701 -- 13 February 1774 ) was a French explorer , geographer , and mathematician . He spent ten years in present-day Ecuador measuring the length of a degree latitude at the equator and preparing the first map of the Amazon region based on astronomical observations . A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography , the study of Earth 's natural environment and human society . A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in his or her work , typically to solve mathematical problems .