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How The Greek Knew That The Earth Is

Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth over 2000 years ago using simple observations and geometry. He noticed that on the summer solstice in Syene, there were no shadows at noon, but in Alexandria shadows were cast, measuring about 7 degrees. Using this measurement and the known distance between the cities, he calculated the circumference of the Earth to be around 40,000 km, close to the modern measurement of 40,030 km.

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Rhuvy Ramos
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126 views

How The Greek Knew That The Earth Is

Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth over 2000 years ago using simple observations and geometry. He noticed that on the summer solstice in Syene, there were no shadows at noon, but in Alexandria shadows were cast, measuring about 7 degrees. Using this measurement and the known distance between the cities, he calculated the circumference of the Earth to be around 40,000 km, close to the modern measurement of 40,030 km.

Uploaded by

Rhuvy Ramos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How the Greek knew that the

Earth is spherical.
GROUP 1
In the mid 20th Century,

 We began launching satellites into space that would help us determine the exact
circumference of the earth: 40,030 km. but over 2000 years earlier, a man in Ancient
Greece came up with nearly the exact same figure using just a stick and his brain.
Eratosthenes had heard that Syene,

 A city sound of Alexandria, no vertical shadows were cast at noon on the summer solstice.
The sun was directly overheard. He wondered is this were also true in Alexandria.
 So, om June 21 he planted the stick directly in the ground and waited to see if a shadow
would be cast at noon. It turns out there was one.
 And it measured about 7 degrees.

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