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How Did Ancient Greek Scholars Measure the Earth Without Circumnavigating It? - Eratosthenes and the Ancient Measurement of the Earth | Sleepy Facts About History
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In the third century BCE, a Greek scholar in Alexandria used a report about a well in southern Egypt and the shadow of a vertical rod to calculate the size of the Earth. This episode explores how Eratosthenes combined astronomical observations with geometric reasoning to estimate the planet's circumference without needing to circumnavigate it. The calculation joined the practical world of travel and administrative distance measurements with the conceptual framework of Hellenistic science…
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