Eratosthenes Accomplishments

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The famous Greek mathematician named Eratosthenes was born in Cyrene, Greece, better known now as Libya, in North Africa, in 276 B.C.E. He died in 194 B.C. due to starvation after becoming blind at an old age. Eratosthenes was well known as the first person to calculate the earth circumference, as well as, a geographer, astronomer and historian. However, the ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy III, invited him to Alexandrian, Egypt to tutor his son and be the librarian for the Alexandrian University. He left Cyrene in 245 BCE to take up his position as head librarian at the museum in Athens, Alexandria. Indeed, his work and many accomplishments made him famous. Eratosthenes evented a cycle of four year with three years consisting of 365 days each, plus a leap year of 366 days.…show more content…
He also calculated the earth circumference without leaving Egypt. These are the tools he used for his calculation: a sundial, compass, and a scrap of papyrus to make basic calculation. As a matter of fact, he did so accurately, coming close to about 10 percent of the contemporary polar measurement of around 24,860 miles, and possibly as 1 percent. Eratosthenes’ time had concluded that the earth is a sphere and that the sun rays strike in a parallel lines. Eratosthenes notices that at a certain time and date, mostly overhead about noon, sunlight fell at an angle vertically about 7.2 degrees. While estimating the distance between the two cities help with being able to calculate the circumference of Earth and obtaining 250,000 stadia

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