Eratosthenes Wonder

Hrafnkell

Alheithinn
Joined
Oct 3, 2004
Messages
788
Location
The Beltway
This is my replacement for Copernicus in ancient eras. I made it for my Hellenistic Kingdoms but am putting it out here for anyone who wants to make use of it.

The wonder splash:

 

Attachments

  • Eratosthenes.zip
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Civpedia large and small:

(I am working on a couple of ideas for an optional civpedia image but other than an obelist with a shadow or a well bottom without one, no real building goes along with this discovery. Another option is Eratosthenes as a statue but Civ is already starting to resemble the Roman forum. I may end up leaving them as is)





Buildings large and small:



 
Civpedia entry:

#BLDG_Eratosthenes
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^^Doubles $LINK<scientific research=GCON_Research> in the city where it is built.
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^May trigger $LINK<Golden Age=GCON_Golden_Age> for Scientific civilizations.
#DESC_BLDG_Eratosthenes
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^Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE) was born in Kyrene, an ancient Greek colony in
what is now Libya, in North Africa. He has been remembered by us as one of the great scientists of the ancient world, and his works provide a basis for modern scientific methods. Among his teachers were Lysanias of Kyrene and Ariston
of Chios. Ariston was a philosopher and had studied under Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which flowered first in the Hellenistic Era and found its most eloquent expression in Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, centuries later. Another teacher of Eratosthenes was Kallimachos, a poet and scholar and also a native of Kyrene. And, of course, Eratosthenes studied in Athens, still the cultural center of the Hellenistic world.
^In time, Eratosthenes came to Alexandria in Egypt, where the Great Library planned
by Ptolemy I Soter had been completed by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Ptolemy appointed Kallimachos the second librarian, and when Ptolemy II Euergetes followed his father as King of Egypt in 245 BCE, he convinced Eratosthenes to come to Alexandria to tutor his son Philopator. Kallimachos died c. 236, and Eratosthenes became the third librarian of theGreat Library, which by then contained hundreds of thousands of scrolls, a collection of all the knoweledge of the known world.
^What Eratosthenes is best remembered for is his calculation of the earth's circumference (240 BCE). He had read about a well in Syene (modern Aswan) in Upper Egypt, which, once a year at noon (on the day of the Summer Solstice) was lit entirely, right down to the bottom by the sun, which therefore lay directly overhead. Knowing this, Eratosthenes placed a stick in the ground at Alexandria and measured the angle of its shadow at that exact day and time. Assuming that the earth was round, and knowing from geometry that the measured angle equaled the size of the angle at the earth's center between Syene and Alexandria, and that the arc of this angle was 1/50 of a circle, he was able to calculate the earth's circumference with an astounding degree of accuracy. All that was required was to multiply the distance between Syene and Alexandria, which was 5000 Stadia, by 50, which gave him the result of 252,000 Stadia. The distance of a stadion is no longer known, but it is generally assumed to have been between 39,690 km and 46,620 km. The earth's actual circumference is 40,008 km.
^But these were not his only accomplishments. He also determined the obliquity of the Ecliptic, measured the tilt of the earth's axis with great accuracy obtaining the value of 23° 51' 15", prepared a star map containing 675 stars, suggested that a leap day be added every fourth year and tried to construct an accurately-dated history. Finally,
He developed the "Sieve of Eratosthenes", a method of finding prime numbers smaller than any given number, which, in modified form, is still an important tool in number theory research.Eratosthenes is said to have became blind in old age and it has been claimed that blind and wearied by life he committed suicide by starvation at the age of 80 in Alexandria, his adopted home.
 
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