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Tue 17 Mar, 2009 06:48 am
How was the distance from the Earth to the Moon first calculated and which culture figured it out first?
Same question for the distance for the Earth to Sun, how was that done and who did it first?
@rosborne979,
Try googling Aristarchus of Samos about 310 BC - about 230 BC.
Id like to dust up the ARistarchus calculations. I feel that this was mostly luck since he didnt have any real values, correct ideas or constants and he still arrived at a distance in terms of earth radii that was right for the wrong reasons. He didnt use parallax which required a telescope.
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