The math celebrity for this week is Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Eratosthenes lived from approximately 276 B.C.E-194 B.C.E. Eratosthenes is known for contributions to many different subject areas. If Eratosthenes were a celebrity in the sense that we think of celebrities today, he would be a musician, a television star, a movie star, AND an all-star athlete. What I mean by this is that Eratosthenes declined to specialize in any one field. He chose to study a variety of skills, and actually excelled at many of them. He was one of the leading all-round scholars, but fell a little short from being the best at any subject. Because of this fact, he was given the nickname “Beta.” His other nickname “Pentatholos” originated from the same idea, relating to all-round Olympians who can only get second place. This is rather harsh though, because he was very successful at what he did.
Eratosthenes became the third librarian of a library called the Mouseion in Alexandria. This library contained hundreds of papyrus. This may provide insight as to why he was so versatile in his knowledge; Eratosthenes loved to learn.
One of the teachers Eratosthenes studied under was the head of the Platonic Academy, Arcesilaus of Pitane. His interest in Plato lead Eratosthenes to write Platonicus, an important piece of work that dealt with the underlying math of Plato’s philosophies. Although Platonicus is now lost, Theon of Smyrna refers to it many times in his writing, Expositio rerum mathematicarum. Specifically, in Platonicus, Eratosthenes wrote about the history of the problem of duplicating the cube. He built a column in Alexandria with an epigram depicting his solution to solving the problem of doubling the cube.
Eratosthenes became the third librarian of a library called the Mouseion in Alexandria. This library contained hundreds of papyrus. This may provide insight as to why he was so versatile in his knowledge; Eratosthenes loved to learn.
One of the teachers Eratosthenes studied under was the head of the Platonic Academy, Arcesilaus of Pitane. His interest in Plato lead Eratosthenes to write Platonicus, an important piece of work that dealt with the underlying math of Plato’s philosophies. Although Platonicus is now lost, Theon of Smyrna refers to it many times in his writing, Expositio rerum mathematicarum. Specifically, in Platonicus, Eratosthenes wrote about the history of the problem of duplicating the cube. He built a column in Alexandria with an epigram depicting his solution to solving the problem of doubling the cube.
Eratosthenes also did work involving prime numbers. He is known for creating the Sieve of Eratosthenes, which is still used today. The Sieve of Eratosthenes is an algorithm for finding all the prime numbers up to a given limit. It explains that multiples of a given prime are generated as a sequence of numbers, starting from that prime, with a constant difference between them, which is equal to the said prime.
Eratosthenes is known for inventing the study of geography. He coined much of the terminology used today, including the name “geography.” He was able to calculate surprisingly accurate measurements of the circumference of the earth by investigating shadows at different times of the day.
It is unknown exactly how accurate Eratosthenes calculations are because his measurements are dependent a unit of measurement called a stadia, and the size of a stadia is controversial. However, Eratosthenes was unarguably accurate enough for this accomplishment to be noteworthy. Eratosthenes’ additional contributions to geography include his measurement of the tilt of the earth’s axis. He was the first to indicate longitude and latitude on maps. He also calculated the size of the sun and the moon and estimated their distance from the earth, and was also the first to write out a calendar including leap year.
It is unknown exactly how accurate Eratosthenes calculations are because his measurements are dependent a unit of measurement called a stadia, and the size of a stadia is controversial. However, Eratosthenes was unarguably accurate enough for this accomplishment to be noteworthy. Eratosthenes’ additional contributions to geography include his measurement of the tilt of the earth’s axis. He was the first to indicate longitude and latitude on maps. He also calculated the size of the sun and the moon and estimated their distance from the earth, and was also the first to write out a calendar including leap year.
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Although other scholars teased Eratosthenes for not having a specialized area of study and for the fact that he did work in multiple subjects, his contributions to the various areas of study are remarkable. In my opinion, his contributions to education in various subject matter are an accomplishment on their own. Not many scholars seemed to be as multifaceted as Eratosthenes and this makes him an impressive intellectual.
Although other scholars teased Eratosthenes for not having a specialized area of study and for the fact that he did work in multiple subjects, his contributions to the various areas of study are remarkable. In my opinion, his contributions to education in various subject matter are an accomplishment on their own. Not many scholars seemed to be as multifaceted as Eratosthenes and this makes him an impressive intellectual.