Eratosthenes was a
very smart guy. He had nothing else to do one day so he started to think (he
did that a lot). He thought to himself, I wonder what the circumference
of the Earth is.
He became obsessed about knowing the answer to this question. The problem was he did not have any technical gear like calculators, smartphones & such. All he had was a stick. He said to himself, “That will do”.
He stuck the stick into the ground and measured the moving shadow of the stick on the ground for awhile. He came up a Circumference Estimate for the Earth that later proved to be over 98.5% accurate. The year was 200BC.
You probably have plans for today but I bet there isn’t a shadow of a doubt that you plans won’t shake a stick to what Eratosthenes did that day.
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Sixteen hundred and ninety two years later Columbus decided to ignore what Eratosthenes and his stick had come up with so long ago. By doing this Columbus proved to all the world for all time that he was not as smart as Eratosthenes was smart.
The sad thing is he had actually studied what Eratosthenes had written about the size of the Earth. Nevertheless, using a map by that had been worked up by a guy named Toscanelli, he chose to believe that the Earth's circumference was 25% smaller than the size Eratosthenes and his stick had come up with.
If Columbus had accepted Eratosthenes's larger value, he would have known that the place where he made landfall was not Asia, but rather a New World.
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In today’s world, if Eratosthenes had been in the opposition party to the party of the Talking Head who was Talking His Head about Eratosthenes, it would have been reported that Eratosthenes had lied.
It would not be that Eratosthenes was close or made a pretty good guess. Because he was not exactly right on with his calculations it would have been reported on the Nightly News he had lied because he had said the circumference of the Earth was 39,425 km, which is 1.5% less than the real circumference, 40,008 km.
If Eratosthenes were not so dead, he would probably say, “I sure am glad I am as dead as I am”.
On the other hand, if Eratosthenes were in the other opposition party the Talking Heads in that party would come to his defense by saying, “Everybody lies about the circumference of the Earth”.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw30CgaXiQw
