• @some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    308 days ago

    I love that Eratosthenes was able to estimate the circumference of the earth with the amount of math we had in his era. Meanwhile, modern flat-earthers are still making me want to vomit.

    I used to see fractals in the shadows on LSD. I couldn’t think of the word “fractal,” and told my friend, “You know, that thing in math?” And he said to me, “When you trip you see math?!” Fun times. To be a teen again.

    • @GraniteM@lemmy.world
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      58 days ago

      Someday I’d like to replicate Eratosthenes’ experiment with a long north-south road trip, but I never remember to make the measurements.

    • @bitcrafter@programming.dev
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      38 days ago

      I love that Eratosthenes was able to estimate the circumference of the earth with the amount of math we had in his era.

      Not only that, but he was much closer to the right answer than Columbus was, yet Columbus is the one to get a day named after him, even though Columbus would have died due to starvation as most people had predicted he would if he had not gotten lucky and run into a continent that no one knew about except for the people that lived there and the Vikings and the Chinese and other people that didn’t count! It just proves the principle that the key to success is not to be smart but to be lucky.