. The earth and its inhabitants .. . 24' 52^45 ' h of" breenwi ch 52°65 6 MUes. four miles. Here is still to be seen an obelisk 120 feet long, not yet entirely detached from the rock. Astronomers also are reminded by this tiame of the experiments here carried out by Eratosthenes, over twenty-one centuries ago. Assuming that Syene stood exactly on the line of the tropic of Cancer, which, how- ever, is not strictly correct,* and finding that at Alexandria the shadow of the gnomon stood at a fiftieth on the day of the summer solstice, from these data Eratosthenes deduced the degree of the ea
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . 24' 52^45 ' h of" breenwi ch 52°65 6 MUes. four miles. Here is still to be seen an obelisk 120 feet long, not yet entirely detached from the rock. Astronomers also are reminded by this tiame of the experiments here carried out by Eratosthenes, over twenty-one centuries ago. Assuming that Syene stood exactly on the line of the tropic of Cancer, which, how- ever, is not strictly correct,* and finding that at Alexandria the shadow of the gnomon stood at a fiftieth on the day of the summer solstice, from these data Eratosthenes deduced the degree of the earth's curvature, and consequently so far * Latitude of Assuan, 24° 5' 23".
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Keywords: ., bookauthor, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography
