Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.
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The experiment itself was interesting. And the length of time to accomplish it. It would be like you could call your friend, get a real time measurement and compare.
Somehow you had to let someone know that at X time, measure the shadow. And then relay that over 800 Km.
@taiwan_girl said in Sagan: Ancient Greeks showed the earth is round.:
The experiment itself was interesting. And the length of time to accomplish it. It would be like you could call your friend, get a real time measurement and compare.
Somehow you had to let someone know that at X time, measure the shadow. And then relay that over 800 Km.
Which is exactly what they did. I learned about this in high school. People did try these experiments.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
@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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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@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
@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.
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@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
@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.
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@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.
@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
