In the first chapter of cosmos Carl Sagan has some very interesting things to say about the ancient philosophers and their impacts on our knowledge of space. One person whom he details is a philosopher by the name of Eratosthenes. Eratosthenes was the first person to estimate the circumference of the earth and he did so in a pretty ingenious way. There were two stakes on the ground; one in the city he was residing in, Alexandria, and another in a city which was 900 miles from him, Sienna. At exactly noon, both him and his assistant measured the angles of the shadows cast by the stakes. Using this, he was able to estimate the circumference of the earth.
This diagram pretty well describes what the experiment Eratosthenes was trying to do.
Not only did this tell Eratosthenes the circumference of the earth, but it also told him with certainty that the world 100%
had to be round. With this knowledge, he made it safe for others to venture far into the unknown and sail west as far as they could, and when you think about it, adventurers sailing westward is like us exploring space. People venturing out into the unknown just to see whats out there. Its interesting seeing these parallels in history like this.
Wow this is incredibly interesting. The fact that as far back as the time of Eratosthenes people were already interested in learning more about the world. All that has really seemed to change is the amount of money that is pumped into more expensive things to learn more about things on much more grad scale.
ReplyDeleteJust when you thought geometry was completely useless... Your teachers mean it when they say what you're learning might be useful someday.
ReplyDelete