Fact Check: Who Invented The Latitude And Longitude?
If you are a lover of science and all its scientific discoveries, then it will amaze you to know who discovered the latitude and longitude that has a great influence on our daily lives.
Even though many people accept that scientific discoveries play a major role in our daily lives, only a few people know the person behind the knowledge of latitude and longitude.
If you are curious to discover the brain behind this, this report would be arguably your best read on this topic.
Who Invented Latitude And Longitude?
The concept of latitude and longitude are crucial in helping us determine the position of any place on the face of the earth and can be attributed to the Eratosthenes of Cyrene.
Eratosthenes was born around 276 BCE and he was a brilliant man of many talents and specializations including mathematics, geography, astronomy, and poetry.
Due to his wit and skill, he was often called “Beta” because he seemed to have a good knowledge in so many fields.
Eratosthenes Amazing Discoveries.
Apart from the determination of the size of the Earth, Eratosthenes has many contributions in the field of geography.
He brought into use the usage of a grid format in the representation of the earth; this marked the starting point of latitude and longitude.
These conjectured lines in line with the equator and from the poles proved helpful as there was now, a scientific technique to determine positions on the surface of the earth.
Latitude And Longitude Criticized.
While there was this progress made by Eratosthenes the real advancement was made by another Greek scholar named Hipparchus in the 2nd century BCE who gave numerical value to these lines of latitude and longitude that made navigation more accurate.
This was later enhanced by the Greek scholar Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE through his book, Geographia in which he enhanced the use of the grid system in cartography today.
Eratosthenes Influence In This Modern Era.
Eratosthenes and his successors continue to be a vital aspect of Modern scientific discoveries.
Their findings and discoveries have carved the path for modern science.
