Librarian who measued the Earth
by Lasky, Kathryn
pub by Little Brown and Co (Time Warner Book Group), NY, 1994 -       - - ISBN 0-31651526-4 - - LCCN 92-42656 -- 48 p. -- Bibliograpny p.48 -- illus. by Kevin Hawkes
This is a young persons biography of Eratosthenes who was a Greek who was born in Cyrene a city founded by Greeks in northern Africa, in what is now Libya. As a young man he moved to Athens where he studied. He became fameous for his intelligence and education.
The third pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt invited Eratosthenes to come to Alexandria. He did and soon became the head of the great library of Alexandra, the largest in the world at that time.
Among his many interests Eratosthenes figured out how to measure the size of the earth.
It had been known that the Earth was a sphere for a long time, but Eratosthenes figured out how to measure its size
by measuring he angle of a shadow of an upright stick in Alexandria in northern Egypt to the sun being overhead at Cyrene (now Aswan) much farther south in Egypt
and then having some experts (betmatists) walk the distance to get an accurate disance between the 2 places.
This book is a good introduction to knowing Eratosthenes, a truly remarkable person who lived from 276 BC to 194 BC and died an old man about the age of 82.
This is a fun read. It gives life to an important person in the history of science and geography. It is well illustrated.
~ 2024_07_01 ~

to Books index page.

-