History of Oceania

Who proved that the world is round?

Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a Greek polymath who lived in the 3rd century BC. He is best known for being the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth. He did this by measuring the angle of the Sun at two different locations on the Earth, and then using geometry to calculate the distance between the two locations. His calculation was remarkably accurate, and it remained the best estimate of the Earth's circumference for over 1,500 years.