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Eratosthenes created a whole section devoted to the examination of Homer, and acquired original works of great tragic dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. [6] Eratosthenes made several important contributions to mathematics and science, and was a friend of Archimedes. Around 255 BC, he invented the armillary sphere.
Treating the Earth as a sphere, its circumference would be its single most important measurement. [2] The first known scientific measurement and calculation was done by Eratosthenes, by comparing altitudes of the mid-day sun at two places a known north–south distance apart. [3] He achieved a great degree of precision in his computation. [4]
Eratosthenes could only measure the circumference of Earth by assuming that the distance to the Sun is so great that the rays of sunlight are practically parallel. [24] Measure of Earth's circumference according to Cleomedes' simplified version, based on the wrong assumption that Syene is on the Tropic of Cancer and on the same meridian as ...
He measured the Earth's circumference by reference to the position of the star Canopus. His measure of 240,000 stadia translates to 24,000 miles (39,000 km), close to the actual circumference of 24,901 miles (40,074 km). [11] He was informed in his approach by Eratosthenes, who a century earlier used the elevation of the Sun at different latitudes.
Arc measurement of Eratosthenes. Arc measurement, [1] sometimes called degree measurement [2] (German: Gradmessung), [3] is the astrogeodetic technique of determining the radius of Earth and, by extension, its circumference.
Eratosthenes (c. 276 – c. 194/195 BC), a Greek mathematician who calculated the circumference of the Earth and also the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Hipparchus (c. 190 – c. 120 BC), a Greek mathematician who measured the radii of the Sun and the Moon as well as their distances from the Earth. On the Sizes and Distances
The concept of a spherical Earth dates back to around the 6th century BC, [2] but remained a matter of philosophical speculation until the 3rd century BC. The first scientific estimation of the radius of the Earth was given by Eratosthenes about 240 BC, with estimates of the accuracy of Eratosthenes's measurement ranging from −1% to 15%.
3rd century BC: Eratosthenes measures the circumference of the Earth. [60] 260 BC: Aristarchus of Samos proposes a basic heliocentric model of the universe. [61] 200 BC: Apollonius of Perga discovers Apollonius's theorem. 200 BC: Apollonius of Perga assigns equations to curves. 200 BC: Apollonius of Perga develops epicycles.