Eratosthenes

[er-uh-tos-thuh-neez]

noun

1. 276?–195? b.c., Greek mathematician and astronomer at Alexandria.

Eratosthenes

/ ˌɛrəˈtɒsθɪˌniːz /

noun

1. ?276–?194 _bc , Greek mathematician and astronomer, who calculated the circumference of the earth by observing the angle of the sun's rays at different places

Eratosthenes

1. Greek mathematician and astronomer who is best known for making an accurate estimate of the circumference of the Earth by measuring the angle of the Sun's rays at two different locations at the same time. He also invented a method for listing the prime numbers that are less than any given number.

Example Sentences

Eratosthenes defined bands of klima, later to be called clim-ata, going from frigid belts in the high latitudes, where there was permanent night in winter, to a hot band near the equator.

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So did Pythagoras, Archimedes and later, in 240BC, the astronomer Eratosthenes, who was among the first to estimate the Earth’s circumference.

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That Eratosthenes was the architect of Euergetes’ proposed calendar—and indirectly of ours as well—is not a proven fact.

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But Eratosthenes was a scientist, and his musings on these commonplaces changed the world; in a way, they made the world.

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Just as a chess player might examine variations of the Ruy Lopez and King’s Indian Defense, a mathematician might study particularly clever applications of the Chinese remainder theorem or the sieve of Eratosthenes.

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