The story about Eratosthenes

and the experiment

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes (276. BC. 194. BC.)

Was a greek:

- mathematician,
- geographer,
- poet,
- athlete,
- astronomer,
- library manager
 He was born in Cyrene (on the territory of Libya)
He was educated in Athens and Alexandria
Known for his capital work Geography
Came up with a rliable way to detect prime numbers
He draw the first map
He became blind and depressed because he could not
read and observe. Decided to stop eating and as a
result died of starvation.
Sieve of Eratosthenes
Design the method for extrication of prime numbers
(known as a Sieve of Eratosthene).
The first map
Drew the first map of the known world. The map
contained meridians and parallels.
 The story of how Eratosthenes calculated the
circumference of the Earth:

While he was manager of the library of Alexandria,

Eratosthenes saw a papyrus and found information
that in Siena (Aswan today), at the time of the solstice
(21th of June), a man can see his shadow on the quiet
surface of a deep well...

What did Eratosthenes conclude?

 In Siene on the 22th of June shadow was not
formed,
. but in Alexandria the shadow was formed.

Siena Alexandria
 He also knew from Greek philosophers that the Earth is
round. The proof was the following experiment:
Experiment:
He knew that in Siena on the day of summer solstice
the sunrays fall at a right angle exactly at noon. The
same day he measured with the help of a stick and
shadow that in Alexandria the sunrays fall at the angle
of 712`.
 Angle of 712` is contained 50 times in a full angle
(360). He concluded that the circumference of Earth
is 50 times bigger than the distance between Siena and
Alexandria .

From some salesman he found information that

the camel takes 50 days to travel from Siena to
Alexandria, and how much distance does the camel
pass in a day. By calculating he got that the distance is
5000 stadia.

He multiplied 5000 with 50, and got that the

circumference is 250,000 stadia.
His calculation:

Alexandria - Siena (5000 stadia)

circumference of the Earth(50 5000 = 250.000 stadia)
One stadia 157,5 m
Circumference of the Earth in meters:
250.000 157,5 = 39.375.000 m = 39.375 km

The exact circumference on the equator is 40.075 km.

Our experiment and the
photo contest
 On the 21. of March, the Eratosthenes experiment was
carried out in our school. According to the coordinates of our
school (our schools location), we have calculated that the local
noon was at 11:41 PM that day. At that time we measured the
shadow on a flat surface using a stick 1m in length, positioning it
in the 90 angle to the surface of the soil. The measurement
results are shown in the table below:

Stick lenght Shadow lenght Angle

1m 0,96 m 4350`
 Then by calculating we got the angle of about
44 at the top of the stick.
 Exchanging results
After that, we exchanged results
with a lot of schools which participated
in the experiment and used those results
and our own data to do the calculations.
The value which is the closest to
the real circumference of the Earth is:

Country School Longitude Latitude Distance Angle Circumference

"Nikandros
Greece Papaioannou"
40.968 22.061 374.5 4028` 40045,36 km
 Given that we were one of 658 schools from
44 countries which participated in the project
"Eratosthenes experiment", which is organized every
year by "Ellinogermaniki Agogo's (EA) Research and
Development Department," we had the right to
participate in the photo contest. The contest was
about the most original photos related to the
experiment.

We sent the following photos:

 PHOTOS

and one more...

 On the 21. of April, we received a mail that the
photo we send was proclaimed as the winning photo in
this international competition. Math teacher, Krsto
Maslea, who was the coordinator of this project, has
been awarded a six-day seminar in Athens (from the 9th
to the 14th of July 2017). On the photograph you can see
over 130 students of our school.
Students:
-Tamara Obretkovi
-Marija Jevti
-Nemanja Stevanovi
-Ognjena Ili
-Nevena Kolerovi

Teachers:
Iva Stojievic, English teacher
Krsto Maslea, Math teacher

Primary school
Jovan erbanovi
Ranovac