Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Civilization Birth

Measurement of Earth's circumference — Eratosthenes

~240 BC · Transmission: Global
AstronomyMethodEgyptian

Eratosthenes measures the angle of the sun's shadow in Syene and Alexandria simultaneously and calculates Earth's circumference. The result (252,000 stadia) equals ~39,375 km, with an error under 2% relative to the modern value. First documented geodesic measurement.

InstitutionLibrary of Alexandria
Historical regionPtolemaic Egypt
Primary sourceCleomedes — De motu circulari corporum caelestium (records Eratosthenes' method)
Secondary sourceMacTutor, St Andrews — Eratosthenes of Cyrene
Original languageAncient Greek
View this entry in the interactive atlas → View in graph →