I didn't watch it closely, but the SB halftime show seemed less satanic than it was a few years back during the pathetic Soetero Admin?
Agree. One of the worst breads ever so far.
That's not nearly as overt as it was the last time I watched the SB 5-6 years ago. Was a horrifying satanic spectacle with anthem-sitter Beyonce and a host of lowlifes.
Fortunately, I missed that bit of scumbaggery. I mostly just watched the football.
Yeah, I did.
You would need to see the original text to see what he really said. English-Greek would be best.
Measuring the Magnitude of the Earth
The greatest work of Eratosthenes, and that which must always make his name conspicuous in scientific history, is the attempt which he made to measure the magnitude of the earth,–in which he brought forward and used the method which is employed to this day. Whether or no he was successful cannot be told, as we shall see; but it is not the less true that he was the originator of the process by which we now know, very nearly indeed, the magnitude of our own planet. Delambre says that if it were he who advised the erection of the circular instruments above alluded to, he must be considered as the founder of astronomy : to which it may be added that he was the founder of geodesy, without any if in the case. The number of ancient writers who have alluded to this remarkable operation (which seems to have obtained its full measure of fame) is very great, and we shall not attempt to combine their remarks or surmises : it is enough to say that the most distinct account, and one of the earliest, is found in the remaining work of CLEOMEDES.
At Syene, in Upper Egypt, which is supposed to be the same as, or near to, the town of Assouan (Lat. 24° 10' N., Long. 32° 59' E. of Greenwich), Eratosthenes was told (that he observed is very doubtful), that deep wells were enlightened to the bottom on the day of the summer solstice, and that vertical objects cast no shadows. He concluded, therefore, that Sycne was on the tropic, and its latitude equal to the obliquity of the ecliptic, which, as we have seen, He had determined : he presumed that it was in the same longitude as Alexandria, in which he was out about 3°, which is not enough to produce what would at that time have been a sensible error. By observations made at Alexandria, he determined the zenith of that place to be distant by the fiftieth part of the circumference from the solstice, which was equivalent to saying that the arc of the meridian between the two places is 7° 12'. Cleomedes says that he used the σκάφη, or hemispherical dial of Berosus, in the determination of this latitude. Delambre rejects the idea with infinite scorn, and pronounces Cleomedes unworthy of credit; and, indeed, it is not easy to see why Eratosthenes should have rejected the gnomon and the large circular instruments, unless, perhaps, for the following reason : There is a sentence of Cleomedes which seems to imply that the disappearance of the shadows at Syene on the day of the summer solstice was noticed to take place for 300 stadia every way round Syene. If Eratosthenes took his report about the phenomenon (and we have no evidence that he went to Syene himself) from those who could give no better account than this, we may easily understand why he would think the σκάφη quite accurate enough to observe with at his own end of the arc, since the other end of it was uncertain by as much as 300 stadia. He gives 5000 stadia for the distance from Alexandriato Syene, and this round number seems further to justify us in concluding that he thought the process to be as rough as in truth it was. Martianus Capella (p. 194) states that he obtained this distance from the measures made by order of the Ptolemies (which had been commenced by Alexander); this writer then implies that Eratosthenes did not go to Syene himself.
The result is 250,000 stadia for the circumference of the earth, which Eratosthenes altered into 252,000, that his result might give an exact number of stadia for the degree, namely, 700; this, of course, should have been 694 4/9. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 2.108) calls this 31,500 Roman miles, and therefore supposes the stadium to be the eighth part of a Roman mile, or takes for granted that Eratosthenes used the Olympic stadium. It is likely enough that the Ptolemies naturalized this stadium in Egypt; but, nevertheless, it is not unlikely that an Egyptian stadium was employed. If we assume the Olympic stadium (202 1/4 yards), the.degree of Eratosthenes is more than 79 miles, upwards of 10 miles 2 too great. Nothing is known of any Egyptian stadium. Pliny (l.c.) asserts that Hipparchus, but for what reason he does not say, wanted to add 25,000 stadia to the circumference as found by Eratosthenes.
Creepy Joe's Dead Tick ?
The original source is Cleomedes relating Erastothenes interpreting another's observation. Yeah, I have an M.A. in Latin, Greek minor from long ago. I posted a reference.