The Hellenistic Age
Arguably the greatest era of scientific development in history, The Hellenistic age highlighted many people and places as importance to the History of our planet. In a time that Alexander The Great was thirsting for power, around 336 b.c.e . His Influence had spread far and wide, and these places that had now been assimilated in the Greek philosophy became known as "Hellenized". For this Reason the three centuries following Alexander's death are known as the Hellenistic (Greek Like) age. In 332 b.c.e, after his conquest of Egypt, Alexander founded the city of Alexandria, which would later become the scientific centre of the ancient Greek world. Alexandria was an institution of the broadest source of information in the world. Combining a library, research facility and university, where literature, math, astronomy and medicine were all studied. Growing popularity, naturally, as interest in these types of knowledge developed. Scientists, and teachers alike, from all over Egypt and Greece participated in experiments. However, Alexander The Great's extraordinary conquests up until his death in 323 b.c.e caused the boundaries of Alexandria to stretch from the Balkans, to North Africa and India. This
fuelled a mad rush of people from different civilizations which quickly gave birth to a new form of Hellenistic civilization, under the order of the dynasties founded by Alexander's generals. Ptolemy I would be the first ruler, and this rule would continue for three centuries until it finally collapsed after the death of Ptolemy I's descendant Cleopatra, in 31 b.c.e. Amazing still were the great Astronomers and Geographers of Alexandria, using no specialized equipment they were still able to come up with fairly accurate theories and results. Heraleides suggested that the earth rotated on its axis every 24 hours, and we now know this to be true. Also, Heracleides came up with a strikingly accurate diagram of our solar system, established by the Babylonians; he made improvements, which reveal the profundity of ancient astronomical knowledge. Not surprisingly the great geographers enclosed within Alexandria at that time were all making claims about the circumference of the Earth. The first was made by King Ptolemy, who was tutored by Strato to keep his interest in the development of science. He estimated that the earth had a circumference of about 17,800 miles (about 30,000km). However, another ancient geographer, Eratosthenes claimed that HIS estimate of 24, 700 miles (about 41000 km) was correct. The real figure in fact is 24, 902 miles (about 41300km), therefore Eratosthesnes was extremely close in his estimate, baffling scientists of today of how he came up with such an accurate number. Among all the great scientists who came out of the Hellenistic age a few names remain w
Some common words found in the essay are:
King Ptolemy, Romans Greeks, Geographers Alexandria, Egypt Alexander, Greek Roman, Ptolemy I's, Alexandria Herophilus, Africa India, Science Arguably, Alexander Great's, hellenistic age, scientific development, vending machine,
Approximate Word count = 1078
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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