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ERIC Number: EJ1056931
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Mar
Pages: 4
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0031-9120
EISSN: N/A
Modern Replication of Eratosthenes' Measurement of the Circumference of Earth
Longhorn, Morgana; Hughes, Stephen
Physics Education, v50 n2 p175-178 Mar 2015
Twenty-two hundred years ago, the Greek scientist Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the Earth. This paper describes an experiment to replicate Eratosthenes' experiment with observers located in Australia and New Zealand. The most accurate circumference produced in the experiment described in this paper is 38,874?km, measured at Rosebud, Victoria, Australia, and Jimboomba, Queensland, Australia with an error of 2.9%. This exceeds the accuracy of Eratosthenes, although not of the modern recreation of his experiment between Syene and Alexandria. The experiment described in this paper might form a useful model for cooperation between schools in different countries.
Institute of Physics Publishing. The Public Ledger Building Suite 929, 150 South Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 215-627-0880; Fax: 215-627-0879; e-mail: info@ioppubusa.com; Web site: http://journals.iop.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia; New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A