DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS

Franko Francis A2 Slot

20BCE0087 12-04-2021

ASSIGNMENT – 1
ERATOSTHENES

Introduction
Eratosthenes was a Greek mathematician who was born in 276BC in
Cyrene(modern Lybia). He is best known for being the first person to calculate
the circumference of the Earth. He was also the first to calculate the tilt of the
Earth's axis. His curiousity to learn made him the chief librarian at the Library
of Alexandria. He added to a wide scope of fields. He was likewise a writer and
a music scholar. He longed to comprehend and unravel every one of the
intricacies on the planet
Major Contributions

* Sieve of Eratosthenes
A significant accomplishment of Eratosthenes is the production of a Sieve that
decides all indivisible numbers up to a given number (n). v
His proposed algorithm:
1. Create a list of consecutive integers from 2 through n: (2, 3, 4, ..., n).
2. Initially, let p equal 2, the smallest prime number.
3. Enumerate the multiples of p by counting in increments of p from 2p to n,
and mark them in the list (these will be 2p, 3p, 4p, ...; the p itself should
not be marked).
4. Find the smallest number in the list greater than p that is not marked. If
there was no such number, stop. Otherwise, let p now equal this new
number (which is the next prime), and repeat from step 3.
5. When the algorithm terminates, the numbers remaining not marked in the
list are all the primes below n.
Circumference calculation
Eratosthenes measured the angle of a shadow produced by a stick at noon on the
summer solstice in Alexandria, and found that it made an angle of about 7.2
degrees, or about 1/50 of a complete circle. Eratosthenes then used this
to calculate the circumference of the Earth to be about 250,000 stadia.
Other Works
• Devised a calendar that asserted that there were 365 days in a year and
that there would be a leap year (366 days) once in every four years
• His measurement of the tilt of the earth’s axis - degree of obliquity
• His invention of the armillary sphere which was used in Astronomy to
determine the positions of celestial objects.
• His logical explanation that the River Nile flooded every year because of
the heavy seasonal rains at its source.
• His sketch of a world map by bringing together all the bits and pieces of
information known then. He used parallels and meridians to locate any
place on the map.