27 Facts About Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a Greek polymath: a mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist.

Eratosthenes was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria.

Eratosthenes's work is comparable to what is known as the study of geography, and he introduced some of the terminology still used today.

Eratosthenes is best known for being the first person known to calculate the circumference of the Earth, which he did by using the extensive survey results he could access in his role at the Library; his calculation was remarkably accurate.

Eratosthenes was the first to calculate Earth's axial tilt, which has proved to have remarkable accuracy.

Eratosthenes created the first global projection of the world, incorporating parallels and meridians based on the available geographic knowledge of his era.

Eratosthenes was a figure of influence in many fields who yearned to understand the complexities of the entire world.

Eratosthenes's devotees nicknamed him Pentathlos after the Olympians who were well rounded competitors, for he had proven himself to be knowledgeable in every area of learning.

The son of Aglaos, Eratosthenes was born in 276 BC in Cyrene.

Eratosthenes then studied under Aristo of Chios, who led a more cynical school of philosophy.

Eratosthenes studied under the head of the Platonic Academy, who was Arcesilaus of Pitane.

Eratosthenes was a man of many perspectives and investigated the art of poetry under Callimachus.

Eratosthenes wrote poems: one in hexameters called Hermes, illustrating the god's life history; and another in elegiacs, called Erigone, describing the suicide of the Athenian maiden Erigone.

Eratosthenes wrote Olympic Victors, a chronology of the winners of the Olympic Games.

Eratosthenes expanded the library's holdings: in Alexandria all books had to be surrendered for duplication.

Eratosthenes sought to maintain the reputation of the Library of Alexandria against competition from the Library of Pergamum.

Eratosthenes created a whole section devoted to the examination of Homer, and acquired original works of great tragic dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

Eratosthenes made several important contributions to mathematics and science, and was a friend of Archimedes.

Eratosthenes believed there was both good and bad in every nation and criticized Aristotle for arguing that humanity was divided into Greeks and barbarians, as well as for arguing that the Greeks should keep themselves racially pure.

Eratosthenes described his arc measurement technique, in a book entitled.

Eratosthenes placed grids of overlapping lines over the surface of the Earth.

Eratosthenes used parallels and meridians to link together every place in the world.

Eratosthenes says Alexander ignored his advisers by his regard for all people with law and government.

Strabo says that Eratosthenes was wrong to claim that Alexander had disregarded the counsel of his advisers.

Eratosthenes was nicknamed Beta because he was great at many things and tried to get his hands on every bit of information but never achieved the highest rank in anything; Strabo accounts Eratosthenes as a mathematician among geographers and a geographer among mathematicians.

In mathematics, the sieve of Eratosthenes, one of a number of prime number sieves, is a simple, ancient algorithm for finding all prime numbers up to any given limit.

Eratosthenes was one of the most pre-eminent scholarly figures of his time, and produced works covering a vast area of knowledge before and during his time at the Library.