this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Sorta. The stade was based on the pous which varied. But not that much, and in ways that are often consistently documented. Around the time Eratosthenes was alive, give or take a couple hundred years, it was documented that 1 Roman mile = 8 stades, which gives us something to go of off. While there are other possible definitions, we do have one that we know is probably closest to whatever Eratosthenes used.

EDIT - the numbers regarding the error range in this source is likely inaccurate, but goes into the units issue

https://maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/eratosthenes-and-the-mystery-of-the-stades-how-long-is-a-stade

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

+/-20% error isn't terrible on a conversion. The fact that it's only 10% offset is crazy though.