Charles Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774), French explorer, geographer, mathematician and astronomer. La Condamine was educated at the College Louis-le-Grande in Paris. During the period 1735 to 1743, he and Pierre Bougeur took part in an expedition to Peru. They were attempting to find out whether Earth is an oblate spheroid (flattened at the poles). By measuring the length of a degree of the meridian and comparing it with similar measurements in the Arctic they proved that Earth is oblate. La Condamine returned to France with samples of curare (a poison) and the first knowledge of rubber and platinum.