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Measuring the Earth, Modernized
The fitting of lenses to surveying instruments in the 1660s greatly improved the accuracy of the Greek method of measuring the Earth, and this soon became the preferred technique. In its modern form, the method requires the following elements: two stations on the same meridian of longitude, which play the same parts as Aswan and Alexandria in the method of Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276–c. 194 bc); a precise determination of the angular height of a designated star at the same time from the two stations; and two perfectly level and accurately measured baselines a few kilometres long near each ...(100 of 417 words)