Area of a circle as follows. Draw a perpendicular from the center to the midpoint of a side of the polygon; its length, "h", is less than the circle radius. Also, let each side of the polygon have length "s"; then the sum of the sides, "ns", is less than the circle circumference. The polygon area consists of "n" equal triangles with height "h" and base "s", thus equals ⁄"nhs". But since "h" < "r" and "ns" < "c", the polygon area must be less than the triangle area, ⁄"cr", a contradiction. Therefore, our supposition that "C" might be greater than "T" must be
Earth's circumference shadow on the ground. Using the length of the rod, and the length of the shadow, as the legs of a triangle, he calculated the angle of the sun's rays. This angle was about 7°, or 1/50th the circumference of a circle; taking the Earth as perfectly spherical, he concluded that the Earth's circumference was 50 times the known distance from Alexandra to Syene (5,000 stadia, a figure that was checked yearly), i.e. 250,000 stadia. Depending on whether he used the "Olympic stade" (176.4m) or the Italian stade (184.8m), this would imply a circumference of 44,100 km (an error of