"In comparison with the great size of the earth the protrusion of mountains is not sufficient to deprive it of its spherical shape or to invalidate measurements based on its spherical shape. For Eratosthenes shows that the perpendicular distance from the highest mountain tops to the lowest regions is ten stades [c.5,000-5,500 feet]. This he shows with the help of dioptras which measure magnitudes at a distance."
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Mathematicians from GreeceAstronomers from GreeceLibrariansHistorians from GreeceGeographers from Greece
Original Language: English
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Simplicius, Commentary On Aristotle's De Caelo, pp. 549.32-550.4 (Heiberg); quoted in Morris R. Cohen and I. E. Drabkin, A Sourcebook in Greek Science (1948), 160 n.2.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eratosthenes
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Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 BC – c. 195/194 BC) was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria. He invented the discipline of geography, including the terminology used today.
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