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
1. Cajori, Florian (1929). "History of Determinations of the Heights of Mountains". Isis. University of Chicago Press, History of Science Society. 12 (3): 482. doi:10.1086/346425. JSTOR 224470. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
2. Plutarch, Aemilius Paullus 15
3. Hyde, Walter Woodburn (1915). "The Ancient Appreciation of Mountain Scenery". The Classical Journal. Classical Association of the Middle West and South. 11 (2): 75. JSTOR 3288010. Retrieved 2015-01-02.
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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Sources
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