Year 240 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Centho and Tuditanus (or, less frequently, year 514 Ab urbe condita).

The Battle of Drepana involves the Romans, under the command of the Roman consul Publius Claudius Pulcher, attacking the Carthaginian fleet, under the command of Adherbal, in the harbour of Drepanum (modern Trapani, Sicily). The Romans are badly defeated and lose 93 of their 123 vessels.

The battle in 240 BC was fought in what is now northeast Tunisia. Carthage was fighting a coalition of mutinous soldiers and rebellious African cities in the Mercenary War, which had started late the previous year in the wake of the First Punic War.

Apollonius of Perga (born c. 240 bc, Perga, Pamphylia, Anatolia—died c. 190, Alexandria, Egypt) was a mathematician, known by his contemporaries as “the Great Geometer,” whose treatise Conics is one of the greatest scientific works from the ancient world.

Oct 19, 2023 · Eratosthene calculated the circumference of Earth by measuring the length of a stick’s shadow in Alexandria and the distance between Alexandria and Syrene on foot. He then took the inverse tangent of the ratio between the shadow’s length and the stick’s length to find the angle of inclination of the Sun.

Year 240 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Centho and Tuditanus (or, less frequently, year 514 Ab urbe condita).

Jun 17, 2024 · Around 240 BC, Eratosthenes devised a clever method to calculate the circumference of the Earth. He noted that on the summer solstice, the sun shone directly down a well in Syene (modern Aswan, Egypt), casting no shadow.

What happened and who was notable in 240 BC? Browse important events, world leaders, notable birthdays, and tragic deaths from the year 240 BC.

Jan 9, 2015 · Compared to today's accepted measurement of the Earth's circumference of 24,901 miles, Eratosthenes' calculation is off by less than 1%. Calculating the circumference of the Earth to within 100 miles is remarkably accurate given that it was done around 240 BC.

Jun 19, 2008 · Courtesy NOAA Ocean Service Education 240 B.C.: Greek astronomer, geographer, mathematician and librarian Eratosthenes calculates the Earth's circumference. His data was rough, but he wasn't...