Area of a circle "ds" over the whole circle formula_33 is just the arc length, which is its circumference, so this shows that the area "A" enclosed by the circle is equal to formula_34 times the circumference of the circle. Note that the area of a semicircle of radius r can be computed by the integral formula_35. By trigonometric substitution, we substitute formula_36, hence formula_37 The last step follows since the trigonometric identity formula_42 implies that formula_43 and formula_44 have equal integrals over the interval formula_45, using integration by substitution. But on the other hand, since formula_46, the sum of the two integrals is
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