How did he do this?
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How did he do this?
2 Comments
Jishnu
1/24/2018 02:57:40 pm
He knew that the shadow in Alexandria was about 7.2 degrees while Syene had none. Then he used a number model and figured it out.
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Parth
1/28/2018 06:54:47 am
Around 240BC a Greek mathematician named Eratosthenes made an estimation for the circumference of the Earth. At 12:00 he noticed that in Syene, a building directly vertical had no shadow. But in Alexandria, there was a shadow at an angle of 7.2 degrees. That is 1/50 of a full circle. That proved the theory of Earth being a sphere. The difference of degrees between Syene and Alexandria in 7.2. He learned that the distance between Alexandria and Syene was 575 miles. If the difference of degrees between Syene and Alexandria in 7.2 which is 1/50 of a circle that the distance between Syene and Alexandria is 1/50 of the Earth's circumference. He multiplied 5000 stadia (575 miles) by 50 to get 25000 stadia (28750 miles). The actual circumference is 24,900 miles so he was pretty close considering that it was 240BC.
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