Biography:Xenagoras (geometer)

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Xenagoras (Ancient Greek:), son of Eumelus, was mentioned by Plutarch as having been among the first to make a scientific measurement of the heights of mountains.[1] This Xenagoras estimated the height of the shrine of Apollo atop Mount Olympus as a little more than 10 stadia, that is, roughly 6,096 feet. (The mountain is in fact 9,573 feet.)[2][3] There are some ancient references to a (now lost) book Measurement of Mountains by a "Xenophon" that some scholars consider to be a reference to this Xenagoras, albeit with the wrong name.[4]

Notes

  1. Cajori, Florian (1929). "History of Determinations of the Heights of Mountains" (in en). Isis (University of Chicago Press, History of Science Society) 12 (3): 482–514. doi:10.1086/346425. 
  2. Plutarch, Aemilius Paullus 15
  3. Hyde, Walter Woodburn (1915). "The Ancient Appreciation of Mountain Scenery" (in en). The Classical Journal (Classical Association of the Middle West and South) 11 (2): 75. 
  4. Lewis, Michael Jonathan Taunton (2001) (in en). Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome. Cambridge University Press. pp. 158. ISBN 9780521792974. https://books.google.com/books?id=1Izau5_ihmsC. Retrieved 2015-01-02.