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The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

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Finding the inaccessible distance L requires the measuringof the two accessible distances A & B and included angle .Once these measurements are obtained, the Law of Cosinesis directly utilized to find L.1 : LLL222 A 10022 B12022 2ABcos( ) 2(100)(120)cos(40 6014.93 L 77.556 ft ---0) Our next measurement, much more ambitious, wasfirst performed by Eratosthenes (275-194 BCE), theDirector of the Alexandrian Library in Egypt. Eratosthenesinvented an ingenious methodology for determining theearth’s circumference. His methodology utilized basictrigonometric principles in conjunction with threeunderlying assumptions quite advanced for his time:1) <strong>The</strong> earth was round2) When sunrays finally reached the earth aftertraveling across the unknown void, they arrived asparallel beams.3) Alexandria and the town of Syene (500 miles to theSouth) fell on the same meridian: an assumption notquite correct as shown in Figure 4.8.AlexandriaNileSyene(Aswan)Figure 4.8: Eratosthenes’ Egypt147

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