The Size of the Spherical Earth

Ancient scholars tried to provide proof of a spherical Earth

and its circumference through calculations. It was
Eratosthenes who gave the most accurate size during their
time. While he was working at the Library of Alexandria in
Northern Egypt, he received correspondence from Syene in
Southern Egypt which stated that a vertical object did not
cast any shadow at noontime during the summer solstice.
But this was not the case in Alexandria where, at noon time
during the summer solstice, a vertical object still casts a
shadow. These observations could only mean that the Sun,
during this time in Alexandria, was not directly overhead.
Eratosthenes then determined the angle the Sun made with the
vertical direction by measuring the shadow that a vertical stick
cast. He found out that in Alexandria, the Sun makes an angle of
7.2° from the vertical while 0” in Syene. To explain the difference,
he hypothesized that the light rays coming from the sun are
parallel, and the Earth is curved.

From his measurements, he computed the circumference of the

Earth to be approximately 250 000 stadia (a stadium is a unit of
measurement used to describe the size of a typical stadium at the
time), about 40 000 kilometers.
Our understanding about the different heavenly bodies can be
credited to the important findings of the following Greek
astronomers:

a. Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras was able to explain what causes the phases of the
moon. According to him, the moon shone only by reflected
sunlight. Since it is a sphere, only half of it illuminated at a time.
This illuminated part that is visible from the earth changes
periodically.
b. Eudoxus
Eudoxus proposed a system of fixed spheres. He believed that the
Sun, the moon, the five known planets and the stars were attached
to these spheres which carried the heavenly bodies while they
revolved around the stationary Earth.

c. Aristotle
Aristotle was a student of Plato. For him, the earth is spherical in
shape since it always casts a curved shadow when it eclipses the
moon. He also believed that the earth was the center of the
universe. The planets and stars were concentric, crystalline spheres
centered on the earth.
d. Aristarchus
Aristarchus is the very first Greek to profess the heliocentric view.
The word helios means sun; centric means centered. This
heliocentric view considered the sun as the center of the
universe. He learned that the sun was many time farther than the
moon and that it was much larger than the earth. He also made
an attempt to calculate the distance of the sun and the moon by
using geometric principles. He based his calculations on his
estimated diameters of the earth and moon, and expressed
distance in terms of diameter. However, the measurements he
got were very small and there were a lot of observational errors.
e. Eratosthenes
The first successful attempt to determine the size of the
earth was made by him. He did this by applying geometric
principles. He observed the angles of the noonday sun in
two Egyptian cities that were almost opposite each other-
Syene (now Aswan) in the south and Alexandria in the
north. He assumed they were in the same longitude.
f. Hipparchus
Hipparchus is considered as the greatest of the early Greek
astronomers. He observed and compared the brightness of
850 stars and arranged them into order of brightness or
magnitude.

He developed a method for predicting the times of lunar

eclipses to within a few hours. Aside from this, he also
measured the length of the year to within minutes of the
modern value
g. Claudius Ptolemy
He believed that the earth was the center of the
universe. His Ptolemic Model claimed that the
planets moved in a complicated system of circles.
This geocentric model also became known as the
Ptolemic System.
The Ptolemic Model
Claudius Ptolemy developed a model that was able to explain the
observable motions of the planets.
According to the Ptolemic Mode, the sun, the moon,
and the other planets move in circular orbits around
the earth. However, if observed night after night, these
planets move slightly eastward among the stars. At a
certain point, the planet appears to stop then moves in
the opposite direction for some time; after which it
will resume its eartward motion. This westward drift of
the planets is called retrograde motion.
To justify his earth-centered model using retrograde
motion, he further explained that the planets orbited
on small circles, called epicycles, revolving around
large circles called deferents.
Aristotle’s Conclusion
Aristotle lived in ancient Greece more than three hundred years
before the Common Era (or Before Christ). In those days, most
people believed that many gods ruled the universe.

A happy god, for instance, might allow an abundant harvest while

an angry god would show his fury with storms or earthquakes.
Aristotle decided he could understand the world through
observation and by using logic and reason. Later scientists called
Aristotle the Father of Natural Science because centuries after the
ancient scholar’s death, his methods formed the basis of the
scientific method.
Most people in Aristotle’s time believed the earth was flat, but he
did not agree. He studied and used scientific methods to prove that
his conclusion was correct. Firstly, Aristotle considered the position
of the North Star. The farther north you journeyed, the closer the
North Star seemed to move to the middle of the sky. But if
someone were to travel south of what we now call the equator, the
North Star could not be seen at all. He also watched ships sailing
into port. He noticed that at a distance, he could see the tops of
their sails before he saw the rest of the ship. Aristotle deduced that
this was because of the curvature of the earth. And lastly he
observed the shadow cast during eclipses.