Eratosthenes Essay Research Paper EratosthenesEratosthenes was born

Eratosthenes Essay, Research Paper

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes was born in Cyrene which is now in Libya in North Africa. His instructors included the bookman Lysanias of Cyrene and the philosopher Ariston of Chios who had studied under Zeno, the laminitis of the Stoic school of doctrine. Eratosthenes besides studied under the poet and scholar Callimachus who had besides been born in Cyrene. Eratosthenes so spent some old ages analyzing in Athens.

The library at Alexandria was planned by Ptolemy I Soter and the undertaking came to fruition under his boy Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The library was based on transcripts of the plants in the library of Aristotle. Ptolemy II Philadelphus appointed one of Eratosthenes & # 8217 ; instructors Callimachus as the 2nd bibliothec. When Ptolemy III Euergetes succeeded his male parent in 245 BC and he persuaded Eratosthenes to travel to Alexandria as the coach of his boy Philopator. On the decease of Callimachus in approximately 240 BC, Eratosthenes became the 3rd librarian at Alexandria, in the library in a temple of the Muses called the Mouseion. The library is said to hold contained 100s of 1000s of papyrus and vellum coils.

One of the of import plants of Eratosthenes was Platonicus which dealt with the mathematics which underlie Plato & # 8217 ; s doctrine. Theon of Smyrna tells us that Eratosthenes & # 8217 ; work studied the basic definitions of geometry and arithmetic, every bit good as covering such subjects as music.

Eratosthenes besides worked on premier Numberss. He is remembered for his premier figure screen, the & # 8216 ; Sieve of Eratosthenes & # 8217 ; which, in modified signifier, is still an of import tool in figure theory research.

Eratosthenes made a surprisingly accurate measuring of the perimeter of the Earth. Detailss were given in his treatise On the measuring of the Earth which is now lost. However, some inside informations of these computations appear in plants by other writers such as Cleomedes, Theon of Smyrna and Strabo. Eratosthenes compared the midday shadow at summer solstice between Syene ( now Aswan on the Nile in Egypt ) and Alexandria. He assumed that the Sun was so far off that its beams were basically parallel, and so with a cognition of the distance betw

een Syene and Alexandria, he gave the length of the perimeter of the Earth as 250,000 bowl.

Eratosthenes besides measured the distance to the Sun as 804,000,000 bowl and the distance to the Moon as 780,000 bowl. He computed these distances utilizing informations obtained during lunar occultations. Ptolemy tells us that Eratosthenes measured the joust of the Earth & # 8217 ; s axis with great truth obtaining the value of 11/83 of 180, viz. 23? 51? 15? .

Eratosthenes made many other major parts to the advancement of scientific discipline. He worked out a calendar that included leap old ages, and he laid the foundations of a systematic chronography of the universe when he tried to give the day of the months of literary and political events from the clip of the besieging of Troy. He is besides said to hold compiled a star catalogue incorporating 675 stars.

Eratosthenes made major parts to geography. He sketched, rather accurately, the path of the Nile to Khartoum, demoing the two Ethiopian feeders. He besides suggested that lakes were the beginning of the river. Many bookmans before Eratosthenes had made a survey of the Nile and they had attempted to explicate the instead unusual behaviour of the river, but most like Thales were rather incorrect in their accounts. Eratosthenes was the first to give what is basically the correct reply when he suggested that heavy rains sometimes fell in parts near the beginning of the river and that these would explicate the implosion therapy lower down the river. Another part that Eratosthenes made to geography was his description of the part & # 8220 ; Eudaimon Arabia & # 8221 ; , now the Yemen, as inhabited by four different races. The state of affairs was slightly more complicated than that proposed by Eratosthenes, but today the names for the races proposed by Eratosthenes, viz. Minaeans, Sabaeans, Qatabanians, and Hadramites, are still used.

Eratosthenes Hagiographas include the verse form Hermes, inspired by uranology, every bit good as literary plants on the theater and on moralss which was a favourite subject of the Greeks. Eratosthenes is said to hold became blind in old age and it has been claimed that he committed self-destruction by famishment.

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