Measurement of a Circle Measurement of a Circle Measurement of a Circle or Dimension of the Circle (Greek: , "Kuklou metrēsis") is a treatise that consists of three propositions by Archimedes, ca. 250 BCE. The treatise is only a fraction of what was a longer work. Proposition one states: The area of any circle is equal to a right-angled triangle in which one of the sides about the right angle is equal to the radius, and the other to the circumference, of the circle. Any circle with a circumference "c" and a radius "r" is equal in area with a right triangle with the
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