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.
  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.
  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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