Eratosthenes' Calculations From: The Washington Post | Date: October 21, 1994 | Copyright 1994 The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post.Copyright information

In his Oct. 14 column, "Why Things Are - Looks Can Be Deceiving" {Style}, Joel Achenbach writes that the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes calculated the earth's circumference to be about 29,000 miles, or about 16 percent greater than today's commonly accepted value of about 25,000 miles. However, David E. Smith states in his book, "History of Mathematics" (1958), that Eratosthenes computed the {earth's} diameter to be the equivalent of 7,850 miles, in our system of measure, which is only 50 ...

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