Who was the first person to find the circumfrance of the Earth and how did they do it?

Question

Here is a hint. It was done over a thousand years ago. Best answer gets ten points!

Answer 1

Eratosthenes Greek mathematician and one of the curators of the library of Alexandria, notice on a scroll that someone recorded at precisely at noon on June 22 that sunlight shone directly into a well and that the structures cast no shadow. Eratosthenes who lived about 90 kms from there noticed that on June 22 at noon where he was there was a shadow. By using the difference in the angle of the shadow and the distance between the to points he calculated the arc of the surface and figured out the circumference of the earth.

Answer 2

eratosthenes, okay you wanted how he did it also. at noon on june 22. he measured the shadow cast by a vertical pillar in alexandria, and found it to be 1/8 the height of a pillar. he reasoned that the distance between alexandria and syene must be 1/50 of a circle, so then they marched btween those two cities. they found it to be 5000 thousand "stadia". about 800 km, 5000 x 50 "250000 stadia" or 40000 km which is about 5% of what we now know to be the circumfrence

Answer 3

Ancient Egyptians knew the distance between Cairo and Alexandria. They knew it was almost straight north. When the sun was at its highest point they measured the angle it made in both places. They used the equation of difference in distance divided by difference in degrees as a constant. They then figured the distance for 360 degrees. This was a close to exact measurement of the earths diameter.

Answer 4

Arotosthanes... or some Grek guy like that.

He noticed that at high noon in Egypt, that the sun casted no shadow on a tall stick in Alexandria.

In Damascus, 800 miles north, he noticed that at high noon, a tall stick casted a shadow at 7º. So using Euclidian plane geometry, he was able to deduce that in order for these two sticks to intersect, they would have to be about 4,000 miles long. He was able to deduce the radius and circumference of the Earth witha startling degree of accuracy... 200 years before Christ!!

Answer 5

Eratosthenes a greek mathematician....using trigonometry and knowledge of the angle of elevation of the Sun at noon in Alexandria and Syene (now Aswan, Egypt).

Answer 6

It was one of Santa Claus's elf's named ienelf. You see, he was bored and frustrated not getting his answer in before all the other elfs*&% ah er bored and frustrated from helping Santa deliver toys to all the boys and girls around the world. He averaged the distance between each house and counted all the houses one christmas eve.
Average distance between each house + The number of houses = The distance around the earth.

Answer 7

This is a Q&A kinda place. You apparently already have the answer, but just for the helluvit -----

Eratosthenes did it. This website tells how ==> http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/observatory/eratosthenes/

You may now take your 10 points and put 'em where the sun never shines.

Answer 8

well, once upon a time there was a man named jebudolukino. he had time to walk every square metre on earth in 2 months! amazing huh?

Answer 9

I forgot who it was but they measured treir shadow called someone ask them how long their shadow was did some calculations and rest is histroy

Answer 10

Megellon, he used a protractor during one of his voyages.