Via Mentalfloss 100 Facts About Earth:
16. Eratosthenes calculated a rough estimate of Earth’s circumference.
Eratosthenes used observations of how high the sun rose in two different Egyptian cities, along with some relatively simple math, to create a rough estimate of the Earth’s circumference. Despite his rather crude methods, his estimate was in the right ballpark. That was more than 2000 years ago.
I mean ffs, I still brag to anybody who will listen (and they don't) about the time the 7th grade I went into the wrong Math
Contest room by accident, taking a college-level geometry test instead
of the 7th-grade one, and I still came in 19th out of 60. Meanwhile this fucker figured out the circumference of the planet YEARS before Google and we only know about him because of listicles thanks to Mentalfloss. Man.
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