Assignment 1. Ancient astronomy: The size of Earth
Eratosthenes of Cyrene Eratosthenes is an ancient Greek Scientist who is famous for his achievement in Geography and Mathematics. He was born in the town of Cyrene, which is now in the Libya, North Africa, around 276 B.C. After many years study in Athens, he was appointed as the chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria in 236 BCE. Achievement: The Sieve of Eratosthenes: He produced a reliable method in discovering prime numbers, which is still important in modern mathematics. First time realized that Earth is a sphere and calculate its diameter with a good accuracy. Invented Geography and the first person to explain the annual flood of River Nile. Wrote Poems and works on astronomy, theatre, and ethics The Sieve of Eratosthenes: Eratosthenes invented a way to find the prime numbers, which are the numbers with no factors but 1 and themselves. The method works this way: First, target a number that you want to check, like 110 for example, then write d...