Although it is simple to identify with Copernicus, I tend to agree with Eratosthenes. Eratosthenes was among the first people to start an astronomical quest and had a significant amount of time on the earth's surface. I believe that Eratosthenes is not given enough credit for his achievements, despite the fact that both of them made significant contributions to estimating the earth's circumference and distance. Eratosthenes started the motion theory long before Copernicus gained notoriety. As a result, Copernicus would never have had anything to infer if it weren't for Eratosthenes. Eratosthenes employed geometry to approximate the size of earth. The sun was at the core of this invention. He would then employ the sun’s altitude at noonday in Alexandria. At that point, he was also able to plot to determine when the sun was at its highest capacity. Again, it was Eratosthenes and contemporaries that paved the way to modern science and mathematics. Apart from history, Eratosthenes was also a good geographer in many respects. In fact, without the contributions of Eratosthenes and his team, Columbus would not only have had problems sailing west, but would not have recognized Asia. Far from inventing the leap year, he was also the first person to generate the first atlas using zeniths and parallels. Even though both Eratosthenes and Copernicus were driven by curiosity, the latter had an easy ride because the former had done a lot in terms of geometry, geography, astronomy, poet, and music.
References
http://www.ancient.eu/Eratosthenes/ http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/eratosthenes.htm https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eratosthenes
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