Eratosthenes Research Paper
Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes was a Greek multi-skilled man who lived from 276BC to 194BC and was born in Cyrene.
What He Did
He discovered that the earth was spherical by reading in a book that on the longest day of the year these two wells that were in two different cities (Syene and Alexandria) cast different shadows. At that point in time the Earth was thought to be flat. This didn’t make sense because the shadows should be the same length. He figured that this meant that the Earth was spherical.
The diagram in figure 1 shows that it made no sense for only one of the wells to have a shadow.
The diagram in figure 2 shows how Eratosthenes thought the Earth must be, because there was only one shadow.
Figure 3: The angle at the surface is equal to the angle at the centre of the Earth. …show more content…
He then got those figures and multiplied it by 50 to make 360. He then realised that the circumference of the Earth was from Syene to Alexandria multiplied by 50. To find out that distance he got a slave to pace out the distance between the two cities. The slave came back and told him 5,000 stadia (1 stadia = 157.5m) so that meant that the circumference of the Earth was 250 000 stadia (39 375km). However it wasn’t until 1700 that it was actually accepted that the Earth was round. Eratosthenes was less than 2% of the accurate
Eratosthenes was a Greek multi-skilled man who lived from 276BC to 194BC and was born in Cyrene.
What He Did
He discovered that the earth was spherical by reading in a book that on the longest day of the year these two wells that were in two different cities (Syene and Alexandria) cast different shadows. At that point in time the Earth was thought to be flat. This didn’t make sense because the shadows should be the same length. He figured that this meant that the Earth was spherical.
The diagram in figure 1 shows that it made no sense for only one of the wells to have a shadow.
The diagram in figure 2 shows how Eratosthenes thought the Earth must be, because there was only one shadow.
Figure 3: The angle at the surface is equal to the angle at the centre of the Earth. …show more content…
He then got those figures and multiplied it by 50 to make 360. He then realised that the circumference of the Earth was from Syene to Alexandria multiplied by 50. To find out that distance he got a slave to pace out the distance between the two cities. The slave came back and told him 5,000 stadia (1 stadia = 157.5m) so that meant that the circumference of the Earth was 250 000 stadia (39 375km). However it wasn’t until 1700 that it was actually accepted that the Earth was round. Eratosthenes was less than 2% of the accurate