Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I appreciate that he worked on it at least. Around the same era, someone else calculated the circumference of the earth (and that it was round) in a pretty accurate fashion (between −2.4% and +0.8% off) based on measuring shadows on equally sized posts at different locations on the same date. Googled, it was Eratosthenes, the cities were Alexandria and Syene/Assuan.



One of my favourite episodes of Cosmos centres around Eratosthenes’ calculation of the circumference of the Earth: https://youtu.be/G8cbIWMv0rI?si=CuX49ki1GIvBLpeL


How did they take measurements in two different cities at the same time without clocks?


IIRC they walked directly north and measured at midday.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: