Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse

The New Coffee Room

  1. TNCR
  2. General Discussion
  3. Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.

Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion
15 Posts 10 Posters 141 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • KlausK Offline
    KlausK Offline
    Klaus
    wrote on last edited by
    #6

    If you want to use this experiment to calculate the circumference of the earth, I think it would matter that one city is south or north of the other. Otherwise, how can you be sure that you measure at the same time of the day without any sun-independent time measuring device?

    1 Reply Last reply
    • jon-nycJ Online
      jon-nycJ Online
      jon-nyc
      wrote on last edited by jon-nyc
      #7

      THere's a detail Sagan missed.

      Syene is on the Tropic of Cancer. It was known that the obelisk cast no shadow at noon on the summer solstice. So Erasthenes simply measured the angle in Alexandria when the shadow was at its shortest on the solstice.

      "You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
      -Cormac McCarthy

      1 Reply Last reply
      • jon-nycJ Online
        jon-nycJ Online
        jon-nyc
        wrote on last edited by
        #8

        By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?

        As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

        "You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
        -Cormac McCarthy

        Doctor PhibesD 1 Reply Last reply
        • jon-nycJ jon-nyc

          By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?

          As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

          Doctor PhibesD Offline
          Doctor PhibesD Offline
          Doctor Phibes
          wrote on last edited by
          #9

          @jon-nyc said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

          By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?
          As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

          Your time is coming, McTwatface

          I was only joking

          jon-nycJ brendaB 2 Replies Last reply
          • CopperC Offline
            CopperC Offline
            Copper
            wrote on last edited by
            #10

            https://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-Problem-ebook/dp/B003WUYE66/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3JVFBOUFUEEKL&keywords=longitude&qid=1659112814&sprefix=longitude%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-1

            The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem."

            Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

            58430b22-9b9d-45f5-a27a-d40447139be2-image.png

            jon-nycJ 1 Reply Last reply
            • CopperC Copper

              https://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-Problem-ebook/dp/B003WUYE66/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3JVFBOUFUEEKL&keywords=longitude&qid=1659112814&sprefix=longitude%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-1

              The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem."

              Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

              58430b22-9b9d-45f5-a27a-d40447139be2-image.png

              jon-nycJ Online
              jon-nycJ Online
              jon-nyc
              wrote on last edited by
              #11

              @Copper I read that years ago. My father gave it to me.

              "You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
              -Cormac McCarthy

              1 Reply Last reply
              • bachophileB Online
                bachophileB Online
                bachophile
                wrote on last edited by
                #12

                Good book longitude.

                And another thought, did they take into account daylight savings time.? Could have thrown the whole experiment off by one hour and then where would we be. With a crooked globe.

                1 Reply Last reply
                • Doctor PhibesD Doctor Phibes

                  @jon-nyc said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                  By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?
                  As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

                  Your time is coming, McTwatface

                  jon-nycJ Online
                  jon-nycJ Online
                  jon-nyc
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #13

                  @Doctor-Phibes said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                  @jon-nyc said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                  By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?
                  As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

                  Your time is coming, McTwatface

                  That’s MISTER McTwatface to you, pal.

                  "You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
                  -Cormac McCarthy

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  • Doctor PhibesD Doctor Phibes

                    @jon-nyc said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                    By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?
                    As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

                    Your time is coming, McTwatface

                    brendaB Offline
                    brendaB Offline
                    brenda
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #14

                    @Doctor-Phibes said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                    @jon-nyc said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                    By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?
                    As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

                    Your time is coming, McTwatface

                    That's Twaty McTwatface, sir.

                    Doctor PhibesD 1 Reply Last reply
                    • brendaB brenda

                      @Doctor-Phibes said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                      @jon-nyc said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                      By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?
                      As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

                      Your time is coming, McTwatface

                      That's Twaty McTwatface, sir.

                      Doctor PhibesD Offline
                      Doctor PhibesD Offline
                      Doctor Phibes
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #15

                      @brenda said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                      @Doctor-Phibes said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                      @jon-nyc said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:

                      By the way, do you guys know any greeks? Isn't it shocking that they used to be brilliant?
                      As implausible-but-true facts go, it's right up there with the English having ruled the world.

                      Your time is coming, McTwatface

                      That's Twaty McTwatface, sir.

                      I was trying not to be overly offensive. I know Jon’s a bit sensitive

                      I was only joking

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      Reply
                      • Reply as topic
                      Log in to reply
                      • Oldest to Newest
                      • Newest to Oldest
                      • Most Votes


                      • Login

                      • Don't have an account? Register

                      • Login or register to search.
                      • First post
                        Last post
                      0
                      • Categories
                      • Recent
                      • Tags
                      • Popular
                      • Users
                      • Groups