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Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity
Classics; Ancient Science Fair; Earth's Circumference; Eratosthenes; Earth
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A Philological Examination Of Eratosthenes’ Calculation Of Earth’S Circumference, Kelly Staver
A Philological Examination Of Eratosthenes’ Calculation Of Earth’S Circumference, Kelly Staver
Classics Ancient Science Fair
A Greek mathematician named Eratosthenes calculated an accurate measurementofthe Earth’s circumference, that being 250,000 stades orclose to Earth’s actualcircumference of40,120 km,¹ in Hellenistic Alexandria, Egyptcirca 240 B.C.E. To do this, Eratosthenes’utilized the distance between Alexandria and Syeneandgnomon measurements taken in Syeneand Alexandria at noon on the summersolstice.