Al Biruni and Eratosthenes are two of the greatest mathematicians lived in the past. They both made some basic calculations to measure the circumference of the Earth.
Al Biruni estimated that the Earth has a circumference of 32 830 km.
Eratosthenes estimated that the Earth’s circumference was 39 375 km.
Of course, each of them used measurement units of their time. The numbers above are converted from their measurement systems to kilometers.
Accurate value of Earth’s circumference was calculated only in the last century.
The circumference of the Earth is 40 075 kilometers.
Can you find the percentage of error in Al Biruni and Eratosthenes’s calculations? Out of 100 percent, how close were they to the accurate length of the circumference?
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