Xenagoras (geometer)

Xenagoras (Ancient Greek: Ξεναγόρας), 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

^ Cajori, Florian (1929). "History of Determinations of the Heights of Mountains". Isis. 12 (3). University of Chicago Press, History of Science Society: 482–514. doi:10.1086/346425. JSTOR 224470. S2CID 144100088.
^ Plutarch, Aemilius Paullus 15
^ Hyde, Walter Woodburn (1915). "The Ancient Appreciation of Mountain Scenery". The Classical Journal. 11 (2). Classical Association of the Middle West and South: 75. JSTOR 3288010.
^ Lewis, Michael Jonathan Taunton (2001). Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome. Cambridge University Press. p. 158. ISBN 9780521792974. Retrieved 2015-01-02.

[1] Cajori, Florian (1929). "History of Determinations of the Heights of Mountains". Isis. 12 (3). University of Chicago Press, History of Science Society: 482–514. doi:10.1086/346425. JSTOR 224470. S2CID 144100088.

[2] Plutarch, Aemilius Paullus 15

[3] Hyde, Walter Woodburn (1915). "The Ancient Appreciation of Mountain Scenery". The Classical Journal. 11 (2). Classical Association of the Middle West and South: 75. JSTOR 3288010.

[4] Lewis, Michael Jonathan Taunton (2001). Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome. Cambridge University Press. p. 158. ISBN 9780521792974. Retrieved 2015-01-02.

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